MASTER 
NEGATIVE 

NO.  95-82464 


COPYRIGHT  STATEMENT 


The  copyright  law  of  the  United  States  (Title  17,  United  States  Code) 
governs  the  making  of  photocopies  or  other  reproductions  of  copyrighted 
materials  including  foreign  works  under  certain  conditions.  In  addition, 
the  United  States  extends  protection  to  foreign  works  by  means  of 
various  international  conventions,  bilateral  agreements,  and 
proclamations. 

Under  certain  conditions  specified  in  the  law,  libraries  and  archives  are 
authorized  to  furnish  a  photocopy  or  other  reproduction.  One  of  these 
specified  conditions  is  that  the  photocopy  or  reproduction  Is  not  to  be 
"used  for  any  purpose  other  than  private  study,  scholarship,  or  research." 
If  a  user  makes  a  request  for,  or  later  uses,  a  photocopy  or  reproduction 
for  purposes  in  excess  of  "fair  use,"  that  user  may  be  liable  for  copyright 
infringement. 

The  Columbia  University  Libraries  reserve  the  right  to  refuse  to  accept  a 
copying  order  if,  in  its  judgement,  fulfillment  of  the  order  would  involve 
violation  of  the  copyright  law. 


Author: 


Title: 

Ships  and  shipping  of  old 
New  York 

Place: 

New  York 

Date: 

[1915] 


?r-^a^6^-3 


MASTER   NEGATIVE   # 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DIVISION 

BIBLIOGRAPHIC  MICROFORM  TARGET 


ORIGINAL  MATERIAL  AS  FILMED  -    EXISTING  BIBLIOGRAPHIC  RECORD 


M\m  Tt'n  ' 


.40 
1B225 


i 


^^^  Ships  and  shipping  of  old  New  York ;  a  brief  account 
of  the  interesting  phases  of  the  commerce  of  New  York 
from  the  foundation  of  the  city  to  the  beginning  of  the 
civil  war.  New  York  city,  Printed  for  BanJc  of  the  Man- 
hattan company  [*1915] 

61,  (1]  p.    illus.  (incl.  ports.,  map)    23)"*. 

"Written,  designed,  and  printed  by  direction  of  the  Walton  advertising 
and  printing  company,  Boston,  Mass." 
"Authorities":  di  p.  at  end. 

l.^hippin^— New  York  (City)    2.  ^hipping— Hist       I.  Walton  adver- 
tising and  printing  company,  Boston,    ii.  Title. 


Library  of  Congress 
Copy  2. 


Copyright    A  399416 


O 


HE767.N5B3 


15-8444 


RESTRICTIONS  ON  USE: 


TECHNICAL  MICROFORM  DATA 


RLM  SIZE:  ^^  ^*^ 


DATE  FILMED 


TRACKING  #  : 


REDUCTION  RATIO: 


.     /^ 


K 


IMAGE  PLACEMENT:  lA  /HA)   IB     IIB 


,Jil_S±lff_ 


INITIALS:  _  ^■ 


in^^  o^f>ns^ 


FILMED  BY  PRESERVATION  RESOURCES,  BETHLEHEM,  PA. 


> 


^^ 


^rO 


a? 


^ 
*^<. 
^^. 

^^A 


V 


(Jj 

-^ 

CJl 

CJl 

3 

= 

3 

n 

> 

0) 

CD 

o  > 

0)  0 

^o 

0  m 

OQ  o 

Q-Z! 

5.m 

(D  0 

OQ*^ 

3x 

3  j^ 

hO^:^ 

KLMN 
Dpqrsti 

oo^P 

^  o 

^0  0 

00^  no 

STUVW 
Z12345 

RSTU 
stuvw 

CTiX 

X  < 

CX)M 

N   < 

<X5 
0 

X 

M 


a 


.'^Z 


-v^ 


^^r^ 

%y^ 


a^ 


o; 


e: 


^e: 


3 

i 


> 


8 

3 
a 


j^/ 


> 


»A 


.'0' 


o? 


s 

3 

3 


10 


O 


■s  Is  Is  Is 


rr 


c> 


00 


b 


ro 
fo 


1.0  mm 


1.5  mm 


2.0  mm 


ABCDCFGHUKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 
•bcdetghiiklmnopqrstuvwiy/ 1 23456  7890 


ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz  1 234567890 


ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 

1234567890 


ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 
2.5  mm  1234567890 


fo 


fp 


^'S. 


C^ 


c^ 


4^ 


^^ 


^o 


m 

O 

O 
-o  m  -D 

>  c  o> 
I  ^  ^ 

0(/)     ; 

m 

31 
O 

m 


./>. 


>. 


V 


3 
3 


tf 
11 

■<  9 

"■  (IB 

5c 


/5n 


O 

3 


Is 
is 

If 


XJ/— 


9X 

f 


^> 


^A^^' 
^ 


o 


i.'CW** 


i 


■m>>m 


- 


-V 


■'^ 


Cohnnlria  (Bntoecsittp 

mtljf  (Itilptffllrtijgdrk  Cd^-  V 


LIBRARY 


School  of  Business 


'~r 


SHIPS  AND  SHIPPING  OF 
OLD  NEW  YORK 


I 

r 


A  BRIEF   ACCOUNT 

OF  THE 

INTERESTING   PHASES   OF  THE   COMMERCE  OF 

NEW  YORK   FROM  THE  FOUNDATION  OF 

THE    CITY  TO    THE    BEGINNING 

OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR 


I 


a-ilPlWP^^i^lP  i"P 


PRINTED  FOE 

BANK  OF  THE  MANHATTAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  CITY 


K. 


~%.*.-^ 


^y 


COPTRIOHTBD,   1915, 
BY 

Bank  or  the  Manhattan  Company 


\^UA-kA-Aj^AX'^4>-a 


Sml  of  the  Manhattan  Compani/ 


I 


Written,  designed,  and  printed 

by  direction  of  the 

Walton  Advertising  and  Printing  Company 

Boston,  Mass. 


\^ 


FOREWORD 

In  presenting  its  second  historical  brochure,  the  Bank  of  the 
Manhattan  Company  directs  attention  to  a  subject  always  of 
interest  to  the  city  of  New  York.  In  the  space  at  its  command 
only  a  bird's-eye  view  can  be  given  of  the  Ships  and  Shipping 
of  Old  New  York  from  the  days  of  the  first  Dutch  traders  to 
the  end  of  that  remarkable  era  of  maritime  development  when 
the  American  clipper  ships  carried  the  bulk  of  the  oversea  trade 
and  were  the  admiration  of  every  port. 

Prior  to  1860  all  the  great  fortunes  of  the  country  had  come 
from  the  sea,  and  so,  inevitably,  from  the  earliest  days  and 
until  the  glory  of  the  American  merchant  marine  had  passed 
away,  ships  and  shipping  were  the  most  conspicuous  feature 
of  New  York  business  life,  and  the  water  front  was  the  centre 
of  interest.  The  story  of  the  adventurous  sailors  and  merchants 
who  built  the  city  with  wealth  brought  from  the  seven  seas, 
together  with  a  brief  account  of  their  vessels,  is  not  without 
interest  to  the  business  man  as  well  as  to  the  student  of  history. 

So  far  as  can  be  learned,  this  pamphlet  is  the  only  connected 
account  of  the  commerce  of  New  York,  and  no  pains  have  been 
spared  to  make  it,  so  far  as  it  goes,  interesting  and  authoritative. 
It  is  illustrated  with  many  rare  prints,  a  number  of  which  are 
here  reproduced  for  the  first  time.  They  are  available  through 
the  courtesy  of  Percy  R.  Pyne,  2d,  John  D.  Crimmins,  the 
New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce,  J.  Clarence  Davies,  Charles 
H.  Taylor,  Jr.,  Arthur  T.  Williams,  Jr.,  Samuel  Pray,  Otto 
Wiecker,  the  Boston  Marine  Society,  the  New  York  Public 
Library,  New  York  Historical  Society,  the  Nantucket  Public 
Library,  and  others  who  have  facilitated  the  preparation  of  this 
book.  A  list  of  the  authorities  consulted  in  the  preparation  of 
this  brochure  will  be  found  on  the  last  page. 

Because  of  the  attention  now  given  everywhere  to  the 
development  of  our  merchant  marine  this  brochure  has  a  time- 
liness which,  perhaps,  will  make  it  the  more  interesting.  It  is 
presented  with  the  compliments  of  the  Bank  of  the  Manhattan 
Company,  which  hopes  it  may  find  a  permanent  place  in  your 
library. 


i4^ 


MM 


''mm 


^'-r 


"2  *^ 
0  e 

>s 

§5 

o  o 

is 

P^i  Is 


M    -b; 


h 


A  rare  print  of  New  York  from  the  N.  Viascher  map,  originally  printed  in  1655, 

(Collection  of  Percy  R.  Pyne,2d.) 


SHIPS  AND   SHIPPING  OF 
OLD    NEW   YORK 


EW  YORK  owes  its  beginning  to  the  trade  enterprise  of  the 
Dutch.  And  the  trading  instinct  early  implanted  by 
these  keen  and  daring  traders  has  given  the  city  the 
character  which  has  made  it  the  commercial  centre  of 
the  New  World.  Unlike  the  other  colonies,  founded  for 
religious  or  political  reasons.  New  York  was  created  by  trade  and  for 
trade,  and  has  never  questioned  its  destiny. 

At  the  time  the  Dutch  began  colonizing  the  island  of  Manhattan 
their  forty  years'  war  for  independence  against  Spain  had  drawn  to 
a  successful  close,  and  they  were  the  freest  people  in  the  world  and 
unsurpassed  in  enterprise  and  intelligence.  All  nationalities  and 
sects  were,  in  theory  at  least,  welcomed  at  Manhattan.  By  the 
year  1650  eighteen  languages  were  there  spoken,  so  that  New  Amster- 
dam, or  early  New  York,  was  then  as  cosmopolitan  as  the  New  York 
of  to-day.  This  broad-minded  tolerance,  which  was  the  universal 
Hollandish  custom,  attracted  from  Europe  bold  adventurers  bent 
upon  making  their  fortune.  In  spite  of  the  interruption  of  the  change 
from  Dutch  to  English  rule,  in  spite  of  the  constant  warfare  of  the 
eighteenth  century  and  the  British  occupation  during  the  Revolution, 
New  York's  commerce  grew  steadily.  By  1800,  eleven  years  after 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  and  the  consequent  establishment 
of  a  stable  government,  New  York  had  outstripped  its  rivals,  Boston 
and  Philadelphia,  and  had  taken  the  foremost  place  as  the  seat  of 
American  commerce, — a  position  she  has  never  relinquished. 

The  story  of  New  York's  trade  begins  in  an  era  of  daring  voyages 
and  strange  perils,  runs  through  years  of  romance  and  adventure,  and 
reaches  its  culmination  when  the  clipper  ships  of  New  York,  Boston, 
and  Philadelphia  controlled  the  carrying  trade  of  the  world. 


M 


6 


SHIPS  AND   SHIPPING   OF  OLD   NEW   YORK 


^"^ 


SHIPS  AND   SHIPPING   OF  OLD   NEW  YORK 


EARLIEST    KNOWN    VIEW   OF    NEW    YORK. 
Joost  Hartgere'  view  of  New  Amsterdam,  from  a  book  printed  in  Amsterdam  in  1651,  contain- 
ing a  narrative  or  description  of  Virginia,  New  England,  and  the  islands,  by  Joost  Hartgers.     (Col- 
lection of  New  York  Public  Library.) 

Bartering       The  shipping  of  New  York  began  about  1610  with  so  insignificant 

for  Fur  a  transaction  as  a  barter  for  fur— probably  a  beaver  skin— between 

an  adventurous  Dutchman  and  an  inquisitive  Indian.     Small  though 

the  transaction  was,  it  was  the  root  of  a  commerce  that  grew  into  a 

trade   so  flourishing   that  in  1914  it  reached  the  enormous  total  of 

$1,795,567,321. 

The  consideration  paid  for  furs  by  the  Dutchmen  probably  was,  at 
first,  gaudy  beads,  brass  buttons,  jack-knives  or  like  articles.     What- 
ever may  have  been  the  consideration,  it  yielded  the  thrifty  Hollanders 
a  satisfactory  profit  in  a  day  when  only  enormous  profits  were  sought 
from  the  sea,  and  led  to  the  slow^  but  sure  development  of  the  mari- 
time trade  of  the  island  of  Manhattan. 
Groiith  of       The  first  report  of  the  rich  fur  trade,  that  the  Indians  of  Manhattan 
the  Fur   offered,  reached  the  shrewd  merchants  of  Holland  with  the  news  of 
Trade  jje^ry  Hudson's  exploration  of  the  river  which  he,  in  honor  of  Prince 
Maurice,  named  the  Mauritius,  but  to  which  posterity  has  given  the 
explorer's   name.     At   the   time  Holland's   main   source  of  furs  was 
Archangel.     Thither  the  merchants  of  Amsterdam  annually  sent  one 
hundred  vessels.     And,  although  the  stockholders  of  the  East  India 
Company  were  much  disappointed  over  Hudson's  failure  to  find  a  short 
passage  to  the  rich  fur  trade  of  India,  the  merchants  of  Holland  were 
certainly  pleased  to  learn  of  a  place  so  productive  of  furs  as  New  Am- 
sterdam; and  especially  pleased  were  they  that  the  valuable  furs  could 
be  secured  for  the  cheap  baubles  so  greedily  sought  by  the  Indians. 
The  distinction  of  inaugurating  the  commerce  of  New  York  belongs 


\^ 


A    RARE    PRINT    SHOWING   A    DUTCH    SQUADRON    ATTACKING    SPANISH 
A    KAKt.    ^*^^gjJip^p*Jj^G   ijj   THE    HARBOR   OF    CALLAO,  PERU. 

The  Dutch  vessels  are  in  the  foreground,  and  to  the  left  are  rowboats  filled  with  armed  men 
from  the  ships  going  to  plunder  the  Spanish  merchantmen  already  helpless  and  op  "^6  At  the 
extreme  left  of  the  picture  a  landing  party  is  meetmg  with  resistance,  and  ^Pf  ^Jf  ^/'^^oPf^^^X 
S  seen  hastening  /rom  the  interior  to  repel  the  attack.  wh^lethe<:^«"««^«;>h^e  fortress  and 
naval  arsenal  are  firing  upon  the  Dutch.  In  the  centre  of  the  picture  behind  the  masts  of 
the  big  ship  in  the  foreground,  is  a  blazing  Dutch  fire-ship  being  towed  towards  the  ship  of 
the  lieutenant-governor  of  the  city.  On  the  right  of  the  picture  is  the  governor  s  palace. 
From  La  Galerie  Agreable.  by  Pierre  vander  Aa.     (Collection  of  J.  Clarence  Davies.) 

to  a  former  officer  of  the  Half  Moon  who  had  served  under  Hudson.  He 
was  probably  either  Van  Campen,  a  Dutchman,  or  Robert  Jewett  (as 
the  Dutch  said,  Juet),  of  Limehouse,  London.  He  commanded  the 
first  trading  vessel  that  was  despatched  in  1610  from  Holland  to  the 
Hudson  for  furs.  Doubtless  splendid  furs  were  brought  back  and  the 
profitable  returns  set  other  merchants  on  the  venture,  for  more  ships 
were  promptly  sent,  two  of  which,  Valentine  says,  bore  the  appropri- 
ate names  of  The  Little  Fox  and  The  Little  Crane.  The  first  ships  to 
trade  with  Manhattan  came  again  and  again,  and  the  repeated  voy- 
ages made  by  these  vessels  were  highly  profitable  business  ventures 
and  resulted  as  well  in  notable  discoveries.  ,    ^i    .  v      i-    /  • 

In  1613,  probably,  the  Fortune,  commanded  by  Hendrick  Christaen-  ^ew  iork s 
sen,  and  the  Tiger,  by  Adriaen  Block,  sailed  to  the  Hudson,  followed  t  irst  .^n^p 
by  three  other  Dutch  vessels.     While  at  anchor  off  Manhattan  Island, 
Block  lost  his  vessel  by  fire  and  spent  the  winter  building  a  new  ship. 
This  he  christened  the  Onrust,  meaning  the  Restless,  and  she  was  the 


^    ,*. 


8 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


>.^ 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


9 


Beginnings 
of  Commerce 
and  Captur- 
ing Spanish 
Silver  Ships 


y 


Minuit 

arrives  and 

buys  New 

York  for 

Sixty 

Guilders 


first  ship  built  in  New  Netherland  and  the  second  ship  built  by  white 
men  in  America.  She  was  44J^  feet  long,  16  tons  burden,  rendered 
much  service  in  exploring  Long  Island  Sound,  and  is  thought  to  have 
been  the  first  European  vessel  to  pass  through  Hell  Gate,  which  in  the 
Dutch  form  means  either  "entrance  to  Hell"  or  "clear  passageway." 

The  year  1614  is  a  memorable  one  in  the  history  of  New  York,  for 
then  the  United  Netherland  Company  received  its  charter  and  thus 
opened  the  duly  chartered  commerce  of  the  Hudson  River.  According 
to  Professor  Henry  Phelps  Jackson  here  was  the  beginning  of  com- 
mercial New  York.  Traders'  huts  had  been  built  on  the  Hudson  for 
those  who  stayed  to  collect  furs  from  the  Indians  while  the  fur-laden 
ships  went  to  Amsterdam  and  came  back  again.  But  there  was  no 
permanent  settlement  at  this  time;  for  the  life  of  the  United  Netherland 
Company,  which  enjoyed  exclusive  trading  privileges  here,  was  limited 
by  charter  to  four  voyages,  all  to  be  made  in  three  years  from  January 
1,  1615.  Not  until  the  Dutch  West  India  Company  came  into  existence 
in  1621  and  received  from  the  States-General  its  famous  charter  with 
enormous  powers,  including  the  exclusive  privilege  of  trading  in  the 
province  of  New  Netherland  for  twenty  years,  was  a  permanent  settle- 
ment made.  Manhattan  Island  was,  however,  of  secondary  con- 
sideration with  the  West  India  Company:  war,  in  which  profits  were 
sought  in  the  capture  of  Spanish  silver  ships,  was  the  chief  enterprise 
of  the  company.  As  a  side  issue  and  during  truces,  the  company's 
vessels  engaged  in  the  fur  trade  and  in  the  capture  and  sale  of  slaves. 
In  1623  the  company  sent  over  thirty  Walloon  families,  some  of  whom 
settled  on  Manhattan  Island,  some  in  what  is  now  a  part  of  the 
borough  of  Brooklyn,  and  others  at  Fort  Orange,  now  Albany. 

Director  Peter  Minuit,  representing  the  West  India  Company, 
arrived  in  1626  with  more  settlers,  and  bought  the  title  to  the  island 
of  Manhattan  from  the  Indians  for  60  guilders,  usually  figured  as 
equivalent  to  $24,  but  with  a  purchasing  value  of  $120  of  our  money; 
the  consideration,  however,  being  paid  in  beads,  ribbons,  mirrors, 
hatchets,  tools,  etc.  He  then  built  Fort  Amsterdam.  The  "  Comptoir,'* 
or  counting  house,  of  the  company  occupied  a  stone  building  thatched 
with  reeds,  and  round  it  were  clustered  about  thirty  houses  made  of 
bark  and  occupied  by  the  settlers. 

As  the  Dutch  West  India  Company  jealously  held  control  of  all  trade, 
it  was  some  years  before  the  States-General  forced  it  to  open  the  fur 
and  oversea  trade  to  settlers.  Despite  the  company's  discouragement 
of  individual  initiative,  trade  flourished  amazingly  under  Minuit's  tact- 
ful rule;  for  the  country,  rich  in  timber  and  furs,  was  easily  exploited 
through  its  many  waterways  and  yielded  rich  returns.  Each  year 
Minuit  sent  to  Holland  larger  and  larger  cargoes  of  furs,  which  the 
Dutch  shallops  brought  to  New  Amsterdam  from  the  Indian  villages 
upon  the  thirteen  rivers  to  which  Sandy  Hook  was  the  inlet.  Fleets  of 
canoes  penetrated  the  minor  streams  and  brought  furs  to  New  Amster- 
dam from  the  interior  of  the  continent.  Trade  was  pushed  as  far  east 
as  Narragansett  Bay. 


NEW  YORK  ABOUT   1660. 
From  a  map  by  Petrus  Schenk.     (Collection  of  Percy  R.  Pyne,  2d.) 

The  earliest  known  manifest  of  a  vessel  clearing  from  the  port  of  New    Earliest 
York  is  in  a  report  made  November  4,  1626,  to  the  States-General  of    Known 
the  arrival  in  Amsterdam  of  the  ship  Arms  of  Amsterdam,  which  sailed    ^^^«" '/'''' 
from  New  Netherland  out  of  the  river  Mauritius  on  the  23d  of  Septem-    '^i^^^  "^^,.    / 
ber.     Her  cargo  comprised  7,246  beaver  skins,  a  mixed  lot  of  about   ^-^  *^  ^'^    *^* 
1,000  skins, — otter,  mink,  wildcat,  and  muskrat, — and  considerable  oak 
timber  and  hickory.     The  value  of  the  cargo  was  between  $25,000  and 
$50,000  of  our  money.     In  1628  the  value  of  the  fur  exports  from  New 
Amsterdam  was  61,000  guilders.     In  the  year  1629-1630  the  value  of 
New  Amsterdam  exports  had  jumped  to  130,000  guilders,  and  in  1632 
the  fur  exports  alone  amounted  to  130,000  guilders,  in  1635  to  135,000 
guilders.     The  returns  from  the  fur  trade,  however,  as  compared  with 
the  treasure  to  be  secured  by  capturing  Spanish  silver  ships  must  have 
seemed  paltry  to  the  ambitious  West   India  Company,  for  in   1628 
Admiral  Heyn's  capture  of  seventeen  Spanish  galleons  yielded  no  less 
than  from  12,000,000  to  14,000,000  Dutch  guilders. 

The  commercial  importance  of  the  settlement  on  Manhattan  Island 
was  early  recognized,  and  steps  were  taken  to  secure  it.  By  the  charter 
of  Liberties  and  Exemptions  issued  in  1629  to  encourage  immigration, 
staple  rights  were  granted  to  the  settlement,  compelling  all  vessels 
trading  on  the  river  or  on  the  coast  to  discharge  their  cargo  at  the  fort 
or  pay  compensating  port  charges. 


y 


Opening  the 

Cocuttiri.st 

Tradi 


\ 


10 


SHIPS  AND  SHIPPING  OF  OLD   NEW  YORK 


ADMIRAL   HEYN'S  CAPTURE   OF   THE   SPANISH   SILVER   FLEET. 

From  a  book  entitled  "The  West  India  Triumph  trumpet,  sounded  to  God's  honor  and  the 
glory  of  the  Dutch,  concerning  the  overthrow  of  the  Spanish  Silver  Fleet  from  New  Spain,  in  the 
Bay  of  Matanzas,  by  the  ships  of  the  authorized  West  India  Company,  under  command  of  the 
Honorable  Valiant  Pieter  Pieterszen  Heyn,  General;  and  of  Heynrick  Korneliszen  Lonk,  Admiral. 
Took  place  the  8th  of  September,  1628.  By  Samuel  Ampzing,  Minister  of  God's  word  near 
Haerlem.  Printed  at  Haerlem  by  Andriaen  Rooman,  oflBcial  City  Book  Printer,  1629."  (Collec- 
tion of  New  York  Public  Library.) 

{Inscription  on  the  cut  readt,  "  Conquest  of  the  Spanish  Silver  Fleet  off  New  Spain  in  the  Bay  of 
Matanzas") 


West  India 


Trade  with  New  England  was  opened  as  early  as  1627,  when  the 
Dutch  invited  ** friendly  commercial  relations"  with  the  Pilgrims  by 
sending  the  governor  of  the  colony  a  "rundlet  of  sugar"  and  two  Hol- 
land cheeses,  and  a  letter  offering  to  accommodate  (give  credit).  At 
first  the  Pilgrims  were  not  responsive  because  the  Dutch  were  trad- 
ing with  the  Indians  in  Connecticut,  a  region  claimed  by  England;  but 
in  1633  Governor  Winthrop's  vessel,  the  Blessing  of  the  Bay,  visited 
New  Amsterdam  and  established  relations  so  cordial  that  by  1635 
New'  Amsterdam  vessels  were  carrying  tobacco  and  salt  to  Boston  from 
the  West  Indies  and  Virginia,  and  Flanders  mares,  oxen,  and  sheep  from 
Holland. 

Foreign  trade,  at  first  the  monopoly  of  the  West  India  Company, 
Ship^  afterwards  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  merchants  of  Holland,  who  carried 
it  on  in  vessels  owned  abroad.  Among  the  trading  vessels  owned  by 
the  West  India  Company  were  the  New  Xetherland  of  260  tons,  the 
Arms  of  Amsterdam,  and  the  bark  Xassau.  The  Xeiv  Xetherland,  which 
brought  the  colonists  in  1623,  was  built  especially  for  the  trade  and 
made  regular  passages  during  the  whole  period  of  the  Dutch  posses- 
sion. It  is  stated  that  one  hundred  years  after  her  first  voyage  she 
came  to  New  York  still  in  good  condition.  The  Hope,  in  command  of 
"Schipper"  Jurian  Blanck,  made  her  first  voyage  to  New  Amsterdam 


M^ 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


11 


f 


i 


in  1633,  having  been  captured  from  the  enemy  the  previous  year. 
Other  ships  engaged  in  trade  with  Holland  were  the  Sea  Mew,  which 
brought  Minuit  in  1626,  the  Orange  Tree,  the  Three  Kings,  the  White 
Horse,  the  Great  Christopher,  the  Black  Eagle,  the  Pear  Tree,  and  the 
King  Solomon,  all  ow  ned  in  Holland.  The  voyage  from  Holland  to  New 
Amsterdam  generally  took  seven  or  eight  weeks,  because  Dutch  cap- 
tains, fearing  the  storms  of  the  North  Atlantic,  after  clearing  the 
English  Channel  laid  their  course  south  for  the  Canary  Islands,  then 
to  Guiana  and  the  Caribbees,  and  northwest,  between  the  Bermudas 
and  the  Bahamas,  to  the  coast. 

The  only  instance  of  shipbuilding  on  a  large  scale  at  this  time  was 
the  great  merchantman  Xew  Xetherland,  probably  named  after  the 
earlier  ship  of  the  same  name,  the  building  of  which  was  one  of  the 
last  achievements  of  the  administration  of  Peter  Minuit.  She  was 
of  600  or  800  tons,— accounts  vary,— being  as  large  as  a  ship  of  the 
line  in  the  Dutch  navy,  and  was  armed  with  thirty  guns  for  defence 
against  pirates  and  privateers.  She  proved  a  white  elephant  in  earn- 
ing capacity,  and  Minuit  was  severely  reprimanded  for  such  use  of 
the  company's  money.  He  was  accused  of  favoring  the  colomes  at 
the  expense  of  the  company,  and  was  recalled  in  1631.  So  discouraging 
was  this  early  effort  in  shipbuilding  that  it  was  many  years  before 
another  large  vessel  was  built  in  New^  York.  The  Onrust  and  the  Xew 
Xetherland  are  the  only  two  vessels  known  to  have  been  built  during 
these  first  years  of  the  settlement,  though  undoubtedly  many  small 
boats  were  constructed  and  much  repairing  done. 

A  new  era  began  in  1638,  when,  in  response  to  the  protest  of  the 
patroons,  the  States  -  General  directed  the  West  India  Company  to 
abolish  the  monopoly  in  trade  and  agriculture,  and  the  right  to  engage 
in  the  fur  trade  was  throw^n  open  to  the  world.  A  duty  of  10  per  cent, 
on  all  imports  from  Holland  and  a  duty  of  15  per  cent,  on  exports  were 
collected  bv  the  company.  The  opening  of  trade  had  an  immediate 
effect  in  attracting  large  parties  of  thrifty,  respectable,  prosperous 
settlers  from  Holland  and  from  the  English  colonies;  and  in  1639  the 
number  of  farms  on  Manhattan  Island  had  increased  from  seven  to 
more  than  thirty,  and  soon  a  flourishing  little  town  arose  in  the  vicinity 
of  what  is  now  Bowling  Green  and  the  shores  of  the  East  River. 

Soon  New  Amsterdam  had  become  a  stopping-place  for  English 
shipmasters,  as  well  as  for  many  English  traders,  whom  the  opening 
of  the  fur  trade  brought  to  the  little  Dutch  town,  and  in  1642  the  City 
Tavern,  as  the  first  hotel  was  known,  was  built  to  accommodate  the 
growing  transient  trade.  A  further  step  toward  greater  prosperity 
of  trade  was  the  abolishment  in  1645  of  the  monopoly  of  the  carrying 
trade  between  Holland  and  New  Netherland,  which  the  West  India 
Company,  with  an  exception  in  favor  of  the  privileged  patroons,  had 
hitherto  enjoyed.  The  trade  was  then  thrown  open  to  the  vessels  of 
private  merchants,  and  the  custom  regulations  adopted  concentrated 
all  commerce  at  Manhattan.  Increases  in  the  export  duties  caused, 
however,  so  much  dissatisfaction  that  in  1651   the  duty  on  tobacco 


a 


big  ^mp 
and 

\1  in  II it's 


r 


irriiing 


rn 


\ 


\' 


12 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


f 


larery  and 


A  VERY  EARLY   PRINT  OF   NEW  AMSTERDAxM. 
From  La  Galerie  Agriable,  by  Pierre  vander  Aa,  showing  the  character  of  the  early  Dutch  build- 
ings and  ships.     (Collection  of  J.  Clarence  Davies.) 

was  removed  and  exports  to  the  British  colonies  were  exempted  from 
duties,  though  imports  from  them  paid  16  per  cent.  duty.  A  valuable 
tobacco  trade  with  Virginia  immediately  sprang  up.  At  this  time  also 
the  African  slave  trade  was  opened  to  the  settlers,  who,  however,  were 
prohibited  from  visiting  the  Gold  Coast,  and  not  until  1659  were  the 
settlers  permitted  to  trade  freely  with  France,  Spain,  Italy,  and  other 
foreign  countries,  and  then  only  on  the  condition  that  vessels  should 
return  with  their  cargoes  to  New  Netherland  or  Amsterdam  and  that 
furs  should  be  exported  to  Holland  alone. 

Though  the  West  India  Company  was  short-sighted  in  hampering 
the  trade  of  Manhattan,  its  directors  seem  to  have  had  some  vision  of 
its  commercial  future,  for  in  1652  in  a  letter  to  Governor  Stuyvesant 
they  urged  him  to  promote  commerce,  particularly  with  the  Virginians, 
by  which  means  must  "the  Manhattans  prosper,  their  population  in- 
crease, their  trade  and  navigation  thrive.*'  In  words  truly  prophetic 
the  letter  continues,  *'for  when  these  once  become  permanently  estab- 
lished, when  the  ships  of  New  Netherland  ride  on  every  part  of  the 
ocean,  then  numbers  now  looking  to  that  coast  with  eager  eyes  will 
be  allured  to  embark  to  your  island." 

Slavery  had  been  accepted  as  a  matter  of  course  and  considered  a 
perfectly  respectable  trade  from  the  earliest  days;   but  the  number  of 


imsterdani  slaves  was  restricted  until  1652  by  the  company's  monopoly  of  the 


SHIPS  AND   SHIPPING   OF  OLD   NEW   YORK 


13 


( 


!}, 


trade  and  its  failure  to  pursue  it  vigorously.  The  first  privately  owned 
slave-ship  to  enter  New  York,  so  far  as  can  be  learned,  was  the  White 
Horse,  which,  in  command  of  Jan  de  Sweerts  and  Dirck  Pietersen,  arrived 
in  the  spring  of  1655,  and  the  best  slaves  were  sold  for  $125  each.  Many 
of  this  importation  died  immediately.  Another  slave-ship,  the  Oak 
Tree,  owned  by  the  company,  sailed  in  1659,  and  her  dimensions  give 
an  idea  of  within  l>ow  small  a  compass  the  poor  negroes  were  crowded. 
She  was  120  feet  in  length,  253^  feet  in  width,  11  feet  draught,  5  to  6 
feet  free-board,  and  had  a  poop-deck.  As  her  ordinary  lading  was  no 
less  than  from  350  to  400  slaves,  it  is  no  wonder  that  from  25  to  50 
per  cent,  were  expected  to  die  on  the  voyage.  The  St.  John  in  1659 
lost  many  of  her  slaves  from  disease  on  the  way  back  from  Africa, 
and  was  shipwrecked  and  captured  by  an  English  privateer.  But 
even  with  the  occasional  total  loss  of  a  ship  and  the  constant  loss  by 
death  the  trade  was  extremely  profitable. 

New  Amsterdam  was  incorporated  in  1653,  and  the  beaver,  as  the 
appropriate  symbol  of  the  source  of  New  Amsterdam's  wealth,  was 
selected  as  a  part  of  the  seal  of  the  city.  The  population  of  the  prov- 
ince was  then  2,000,  that  of  New  Amsterdam  800;  and  the  population 
continued  to  increase  rapidly.  People  of  means  came  from  the  Eng- 
lish colonies  and  from  Holland  and  made  small  fortunes  out  of  the 
river  trade  in  furs  and  the  coastwise  trade. 

Shipbuilding  during  the  Dutch  days  was  carried  on  in  the  locality 
along  the  shore  road  between  Wall  Street  and  the  present  Franklin 
Square,  on  the  line  of  Pearl  Street,  which  was  called  Smit's  Valley, 
afterwards  known  as  the  Fly.  Here  probably  was  launched  the  New 
Love,  the  first  three-masted  ship  known  to  have  been  built  upon  our 
shores,  and  owned  chiefly  by  Pieter  Cornelisen  Vanderveen,  who  came 
from  Amsterdam,  and  was  the  first  man  to  build  a  brick  house  in 
New  Amsterdam.  In  Smit's  Valley  lived  most  of  the  ship-carpenters. 
Their  facilities  at  first  were  very  limited,  for  a  letter  written  in  1658 
about  a  "galliot"  needed  for  local  use  reads,  "We  are  not  yet  in  con- 
dition to  build  such  a  craft  here."  At  this  time  the  price  of  a  Hudson 
River  sloop  was  $560,  and  of  a  28-foot  canoe,  $11.20. 

The  "hooft,"  as  the  city  dock  was  called,  was  a  lively  spot  toward  the 
end  of  the  Dutch  rule.  It  lay  between  the  present  Coenties  Slip  and 
Whitehall  Street,  was  the  only  wharf  in  Manhattan,  and  was  very  small 
until  1653,  when  it  was  extended  to  fifty  feet  to  accommodate  the  grow- 
ing trade.  Gangs  of  negroes  loaded  and  unloaded  the  scows  that  plied 
between  the  dock  and  the  clumsy  ships  at  anchor  in  the  roadstead.  To 
prevent  smuggling  and  keep  the  sailors  from  landing,  ships  were  not  al- 
lowed to  dock.  A  guide-board  off  Coenties  Slip  forbade  ships  of  fifty  tons 
or  under  to  anchor  between  that  point  and  the  Battery.  Another  near 
the  present  Fulton  Ferry  forbade  any  vessel  to  anchor  above  that  point. 
The  arrival  of  a  "Holland"  ship  was  an  occttsion  of  great  rejoicing. 
People  went  in  boats  to  meet  it,  and  the  national  flag  was  hoisted. 
These  quaint,  round-bottomed,  high-pooped  Dutch  ships  brought  car- 
goes of  dry  goods,  hardware,  groceries,  with  "cows  calves"  and  "ewe 


rJ. 


Town  I) 


Dutch 

f  '/r  r.  ii  I. 


V  n 


„J 


Merchant^f 


V 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


15 


SI 


THE  STADTHUYS  OF  NEW  YORK,   1679. 
Corner  of  Pearl  Street  and  Coenties  Slip.     (Collection  of  Percy  R.  Pyne,  2d.) 

milk  sheep," — an  important  part  of  Dutch  imports, — and  sailed  away 
with  grain,  pelts,  lumber,  potash,  and  medicinal  herbs.  Virginia  ketches 
laden  with  tobacco,  pinkes  from  the  Barbadoes  with  sugar  and  molas- 
ses, and  galleys  from  Curagoa  bringing  fruits  and  costly  dyestuffs 
came  into  port  at  short  intervals.  '*  Yachts,"  as  the  Dutch  called  the 
small  sloops  used  on  the  rivers,  were  constantly  arriving  from  the 
Hudson  with  beaver  and  mink  skins  collected  by  the  Indians,  and 
occasionally  after  1652  a  slaver  came  in.  Outside  Sandy  Hook  a 
Dutch  man-of-war  was  stationed  to  protect  shipping  from  the  pirates 
who  took  refuge  in  Long  Island  Sound.  The  fur  trade  was  carried  on 
in  small  sloops.  Some  of  these  went  on  itinerant  trading  trips  among 
the  Indians,  each  trader  having  his  favorite  locality  where  he  had 
established  himself  on  friendly  terms  with  the  natives.  Other  sloops 
served  as  regular  packets  running  from  Albany  or  Kingston  to  New 
Amsterdam.  The  principal  down  freight  was  fur,  and  the  up  freight 
was  goods  for  the  Albany  settlers  and  for  the  Indian  trade.  All  the 
"yachts"  were  provided  with  a  gun,  probably  the  cumbrous  match- 
lock, set  upon  a  rest  on  deck. 

The  four  principal  merchants  of  New  Amsterdam  were  Cornelis 
Steenwyck,  Pieter  Cornelisen  Vanderveen,  Isaac  AUerton,  and  Go  vert 
Loockermans.  Steenwyck  was  originally  in  the  employ  of  the  West 
India  Company.  He  had  connections  in  Holland,  and  was  engaged 
more  extensively  in  the  foreign  trade  than  any  other  New  Amsterdam 
merchant.     Isaac  Allerton  was  an  Englishman  who  came  to  Plymouth 


1 


16 


SHIPS  AND  SHIPPING   OF  OLD  NEW  YORK 


^if 


i 


Coiitralniiiit 

Trad' 

irith  tlu 

Indian  > 


in  the  Mayflower.  He  owned  the  ketch  William  and  Johriy  traded  with 
Virginia  for  tobacco,  and  had  a  large  tobacco  warehouse  on  the  East 
River  at  Maiden  Lane.  Govert  Loockermans  grew  rich  in  the  fur 
trade.  He  was  one  of  the  earhest  immigrants,  coming  as  a  clerk  in 
the  employ  of  the  West  India  Company,  and  later  was  one  of  the  first, 
if  not  the  first,  captain  of  a  regular  packet  line  from  New  York  to 
Albany.  He  engaged  in  the  forbidden  gun  and  rum  traflBc  with  the 
Indians,  and  was  sentenced  to  banishment,  but  the  judgment  was 
never  enforced. 

The  Dutch  found  it  impossible  to  resist  trading  guns  and  liquor  for 
furs,  though  this  was  forbidden  by  the  West  India  Company,  as 
it  was  sure  to  cause  Indian  wars.  But,  when  a  musket  would  buy 
twenty  beaver  skins  and  one  pound  of  gunpowder  was  worth  from  ten 
to  twelve  guilders  in  furs,  the  profits  were  tempting.  A  ship  sent  out 
in  1644  from  Holland  by  the  Patroon  of  Rensselaerwyck  was  by  the 
merest  chance  searched  at  Fort  Amsterdam,  and  was  found  to  have  on 
board,  but  not  in  her  manifest,  4,000  pounds  of  powder  and  200  muskets 
for  trade  with  the  Indians.  Although  this  contraband  cargo  was 
confiscated,  it  probably  reached  the  Indians  in  the  end. 

Govert  Barent,  armorer  at  Fort  Amsterdam,  and  three  others 
were  sentenced  to  death  for  a  similar  offence;  but  *'by  the  intervention 
of  many  good  men"  they  were  saved,  but  their  illegally  held  property 
was  confiscated.  As  almost  every  one  aspired  to  have  a  hand  in  this 
trade,  public  sympathy  was  in  favor  of  it;  and  the  same  stand  was 
taken  on  the  liquor  trade,  as  it  was  found  that  much  better  bargains 
could  be  made  with  drunken  Indians  than  with  sober  ones. 

There  was  practically  no  coin  in  the  colony,  and  wampum  was  legal 
tender  and  the  only  currency  in  use.  The  shores  of  Long  Island 
abounded  with  the  shells  of  which  wampum  was  made,  and  the  Indians 
who  lived  there  were  the  chief  manufacturers  of  it  and  *'the  bankers" 
for  the  whole  coast.  This  gave  the  Dutch  a  great  advantage  over  the 
other  colonies  in  trading  with  the  Indians.  Wampum  was  of  two  kinds, 
black  and  white.  In  1659  the  value  of  four  pieces  of  the  black  was 
fixed  at  a  penny.  In  1656  Director  Stuyvesant  made  beaver  skin  a 
currency  also, — one  beaver  skin  to  be  valued  at  eight  florins,  or  $3.20. 

When  the  Dutch  came  to  Manhattan,  Holland's  commercial  star 
was  just  rising,  and  toward  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  she 
Englami  took  first  place  as  a  commercial  power.  With  the  help  of  England, 
Holland  had  crushed  the  sea  power  of  her  old  enemy,  Spain,  and  soon 
controlled  the  carrying  trade  of  the  world,  nearly  half  the  entire  ton- 
nage of  Europe  being  under  her  flag.  Her  rapid  commercial  develop- 
ment began  to  arouse  the  jealousy  of  England,  and  led  the  latter  to 
pass  the  famous  Navigation  Laws,  which  forbade  importation  to  Eng- 
land in  any  but  English  ships  or  the  ships  of  the  country  producing 
the  goods.  This  blow  at  the  Dutch  carrying  trade  was  soon  amended 
to  close  English  colonial  ports  to  Dutch  vessels  in  the  same  way. 
But  these  laws  were  hard  to  enforce  in  the  colonies,  and  there  was 
so   much  illicit  trade  between   the  English  and  Dutch  colonies  that 


n  am  pn  it> 

atnl  Braver 

SL'ins  L('(jal 

Tett<l- : 


I  { alia  n  I 
versu. 


f 


"X ,  ^ 


j 


f 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD    NEW   YORK 


'-c-f 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


19 


t 


U&kr 


t 


AN  EARLY   SEA   FIGHT   OFF   THE    MEXICAN   COAST 
Showing  the  men-of-war  of  the  eighteenth  century       From  LaGaUrie  AgrSable,  by  Pierre  vander 
•*  Aa.     (Collection  of  J.  Clarence  Daviea.) 

England's  losses  of  revenue  were  considerable  It  was  estimated  that 
£10,000  were  annually  lost  on  tobacco  alone  taken  to  Manhattan  Ihe 
Navigation  Laws  and  the  difficulty  of  enforcing  them  m  the  colonies 
ed  to  wars  between  Holland  and  England;  and  thus  the  commercial 
importance  of  New  Netherland  was  the  cause  of  its  being  taken  by 

^Throughout  the  colonial  period  New  York  was  a  little  seaport  town, 
entirely  dependent  upon  the  ocean  for  its  livelihood  Though  dis- 
couraged by  long  maritime  wars,  by  privateering  and  piracy,  legiti- 
mrteTrade  developed  in  a  variety  of  directions.  The  beaver  ceased 
to  be  the  one  important  support  of  commerce:  a  monopoly  n  the 
flour  business  led  to  a  flourishing  West  Indian  trade  that  was  based 
upon  a  loaf  of  bread."  Just  before  the  Revolution  broke  out.  the  com- 
merce of  New  York  equalled  that  of  Boston  or  Philadelphia. 

In  1678  Governor  Andros  estimated  the  total  value  of  Property 
in  the  city  at  $3,000,000  of  our  money.  A  merchant  worth  ±,1,000, 
^ui^alent^o  $20,000  to-day.  was  considered  "'^h.  and  a  planter  w.Ui 
movables  worth  half  that  amount  was  well  off.     The  Dutch  element 

^''L'riJrS  ten  years  of  the  British  occupation  of  New  York. 


t 


continued  war  with  Holland  and  the  depredations  of  P^.v^^f  J^!,  P/^^" 
vented  any  considerable  expansion  of  commerce,  and  in  lbb9  the 
presence  of  nine  or  ten  vessels  in  port  at  once,  even  of  traders  to  Boston, 
the  South,  or  the  West  Indies,  was  an  event  to  provoke  comment. 
Some  attention  was  given  to  fishing,  and  whales  were  taken  in  JNew 

York  harbor.  ^     ,.  ,  j.   x     i     ri, . 

As  soon  as  conditions  justified   it,   the  English   government  took    / 
steps  to  foster  trade.     In  1678  shipping  was  greatly  stimulated  by  the   ^^l^"^;;;^' 
passage  of  the  Bolting  Act,  which  remained  in  force  sixteen  years  and    ^.,^.    ^■ 
laid  the  foundations  of  New  York's  foreign  trade.     This  act  gave  the 
city  a  monopoly  in  bolting  flour  and  in  packing  flour  and  biscuit  for 
export,  and  threw  the  export  trade  in  breadstuffs  into  the  hands  of 
the  millers  and  merchants  of  New  York,  who  made  the  most  of  their 

opportunity.  ,  .      .       11       •       .     .1.       -i. 

At  the  time  the  act  was  passed  the  shipping  belonging  to  the  city 
consisted  of  three  ships,  seven  sloops,  and  eight  boats.  In  1694,  after 
the  Bolting  Act  had  been  in  force  sixteen  years,  New  York  had  h^ 
ships  and  102  sloops.  When  the  act  was  repealed  m  justice  to  the 
rest  of  the  province,  the  petitioners  against  the  repeal  stated  that 
600  of  the  983  buildings  in  the  city  depended  in  some  way  on  the  flour 
trade,  and  cited  that  the  revenues  of  the  city  had  increased  from  i.2,000 
to  £5,000,  and  that  the  number  of  beef  cattle  slaughtered  in  the  city 
had  increased  from  400  to  4,000.  The  cattle  were  chiefly  for  export 
to  the  W^est  Indies.  Under  this  stimulus  the  growth  of  the  city  was 
extraordinary,  and  it  was  altogether  fitting  that  the  new  arms  granted 
in  1686  should  carry,  in  addition  to  the  beaver,  the  arms  of  a  windmill 

and  two  flour  barrels.  ,  ,      ,  .         ,  t?      * 

More  and  more  settlers  came,  and  land  rose  m  value.  J^ourteen 
lots  near  Coenties  Slip  sold  at  auction  in  1689  for  £35  each,  and  a  lot 
at  the  foot  of  Broad  Street  was  valued  at  £80.  This  rise  was  due 
especially  to  the  building  at  the  foot  of  Broad  Street,  at  the  same 
time  that  the  canal  was  filled  in,  of  two  basins  large  enough  to  harbor 
a  whole  fleet  of  the  small  ships  of  the  day,  which  were  known  as  the 

Wet  Docks.  ^  ^  1     «xT 

In  his  report  on  shipping  in  1686,  Governor  Dongan  said:  New 
York  and  Albany  live  w^holly  on  trade  with  the  Indians,  English  and 
W^est  Indies.  We  send  to  England  mostly  beaver,  whale  oil  and  some 
tobacco;  to  the  West  Indies  flour,  bread,  pease,  pork,  sometimes 
horses,  and  bring  from  there  rum  which  pays  duty  and  molasses  which 

does  not.'*  ,  ^r        ^r    1 

At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  New  York  appears 
to  have  had  about  half  as  much  trade  as  Boston,  and  about  one-third 
of  this  was  in  direct  violation  of  the  Navigation  Laws.  The  ^\est 
India  trade  was  handled  so  intelligently  that  it  grew  steadily,  and 
throughout  the  colonial  period  rivalled  in  profits  the  fur  trade.  I'ro- 
visions  were  shipped  from  New  York  and  exchanged  for  West  India 
products,  which  were  taken  to  England  and  there  exchanged  for  manu- 
factured goods.     These  were  brought  to  New  York  and  sold,  and  thus 


Commerce 
at  tin  (lose 
of  the 

Sevetiteentk 
Vent  ur  If 


< 


>. 


20 


SHIPS  AND   SHIPPING   OF  OLD   NEW  YORK 


i    / 


there  were  three  profits  on  each  transaction.    The  bulk  of  this  traffic 
was  wHhThe  BrWsh  islands.     There  was  more  trade  with  the  Barbadoes 
Than  with  any  of  the  other  islands,  as  provisions  were  taken  there  not 
nnW  7or  the  local  supply,  but  for  transportation  to  the  Spanish  coa.st 
i^he  Sench  1  rancTs."^  Much  of  the  trade  was  merely  an  exchange 
of  Droduct^     but  a  considerable  cash  balance  resulted,  which  was 
hnSatey  remitted  to   England   to  pay  for  manufactured   goods. 
^hTwine    rade  with  Madeira  was  the  only  losing  trade  done  by  New 
York  as  the  city  consumed  more  wine  than  could  be  paid  for  by  the 
Jomm.Sitie:  that  could  be  supplied  to  Madeira      Fof  -  ^hort  tune 
owinc  to  a  European  war,  an  enormously  profitable  wheat  trade  with 
Lisbon  was  carried  on  for  the  supply  of  France     New  York  also  sent 
quantities  of  flour  to  Rhode  Island,  Boston,  and  Sou  h  Carolina.    Trade 
had  its  UDS  and  downs  according  to  what  ports  war  left  open.  . 

Every  few  years  a  prolonged  maritime  war  with  France  or  Spain, 
or  bXwodd  break  out,  and  merchantmen  ran  the  gauntlet  of  war- 
shins  and  pr"vateers.  Piracy,  too,  was  an  ever-present  danger  tha  did 
much  to  dTourage  commerce,  and  there  were  so  many  interruptions 
To TegiUmartrade  that  New  York  merchants  plunged  into  pnvateer- 

,>.  ,    '"L^'lTwarSif  sTpVo-   privateering,  in  which  all  the  leading 

Piracy  and        bo  snorx  wds   tiic        ^    x^    -.^pv   and  so  outrageous  were  the  tariffs 

""  '1-^    ™nTS  ThrNaSS^  aXS  :tirit°ol/wlessness,  which  tol- 
id  piracv  and  enLuraged  smuggling,  was  bred  among  even  the  most 

"^S^wtrokf out 'n  1688  between  France  and  Spain,  and  Eng- 
land io"n^  Spat!  New  York  became  the  principal  headquarters  for 
DrivaSsmen  and  adventurers  from  all  Europe,  to  whom  the  name 
pnyateersmen  dii  „„Dlied      Many  of  these,  in  times  of  peace, 

a^l'fundeTfhe^sklL'nV'cKones.  a'nd  for  almost  ^teen jears 
thiv  not  onlv  found  New  York  a  safe  haven,  but  greatly  enriched  her 
me^hants    numbers  of  whom  engaged  indirectly  in  piracy  through 

-\^rwi't;tt^ms  bTwWch  New  Vork  merchants  profited  by 
!w  ^  tV,;  more  conservative  New  York  merchants,  was  to  fit  out  an 

frX:SVe™^vS  fof  Se?n  stuffs,  spiL.  precious  stones,  and 

%Cfi"r1  pirateTo  Aew  York  as  a  base  was  WiUiam  Mason,  who 

Pirates        ^n^f"^^*;?-     j   i„tt«,=  a.ithorizina  him  "to  war  as  in  his  wisdom 

^^- C  J/.  trs^rin^^ILsTrSh.    several  other  ships  received 


-^^ 


>% 


i 


OS 

C 

a 

H 
O 

03 

w 
o 

H 

o 

H 

ffi 

9a 

51  ^ 
§  o 

O     ^ 

§  W 


> 

w 
a 

o 
w 

09 

CO 


i^y 


22 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


Pirate  l  c" 

comes  /<- 

\rir  Vi>r/. 


similar  letters,  and,  as  they  engaged  only  in  lawful  pnvateering  and 
brought  in  several  French  prizes,  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
Mason's  letter  was  issued  in  bad  faith.     Very  hkely  he  d.dn  t  prern^.- 
tate  piracy,  and  took  it  up  only  because  he  failed  to  make  his  expected 
profits  o/t  of  privateering.     In  piracy,  however,  he  was  extremely 
successful,  and  at  the  end  of  three  years,  when  spoils  ««;•«  d'^^^' 
every  man  before  the  mast  received  1.800  p.eces-of-eight.  about  $1,800. 
En  then  dropped  out  of  sight;   but  in  1693  h.s  ship  ca'ne  back  in 
charge  of  Edward  Coates,  a  notorious  pirate.     Coates     negotiated 
with  Governor  Fletcher,  and  at  Fletcher's  trial  testified  that  permission 
to  enter  New  York  without  danger  cost  him  £1.800.  which  was  divided 
among  the  governor  and  his  council.      The  governor's  .share  of  the 
bribe  was  the  pirate's  ship,  which  he  sold  to  the  irreproachable  Caleb 
Heathrote  for  £800.     When  news  of  this  deal  between  Coates  and 
Fletoher  leaked  out,  and  it  was  known  that  New  York  would  sanction 
piracy  under  the  guise  of  privateering,  adventurers  under  the  black 
flaff  flocked  to  New  York  from  all  over  the  world. 

One  ofihe  most  notorious.  Captain  Thomas  Tew,  soon  appeared 
in  New  York,  and  between  him  and  Governor  Fletcher  a  close  friend- 
ship sprang  up.  He  had  recently  returned  from  a  highly  successful 
cruL  b  the  Indian  Ocean,  where  he  had  captured  several  ships  of  he 
East  India  Company  and  made  his  name  a  terror  in  that  part  of  the 
world.  Coming  to  America  to  secure  a  new  pnvateering  outfit,  he 
made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  in  Bristol,  R.I.,  a  town  particulariy  lax 
toward  pirates,— evidence  enough  of  his  reputation. 

He  then  came  to  New  York,  where  he  was  made  welcome  and  had 
little  difficulty  in  securing  an  outfit.  A  most  pictoresque  figure  was 
CaDtain  Tew  as  he  appeared  in  the  streets  and  taverns  of  New  York, - 
qu&atfJIl  in  all  but  size.  He  is  described  as  a  shght,  dark  man  of 
about  forty,  who  dressed  richly  and  scattered  h^  gold  wMth  a  free  hand 
A  blue  cap  with  a  band  of  cloth  of  silver  covered  his  dark  locks,  and  h.s 
blue  jacket,  cut  in  the  latest  buccaneering  mode,  was  profusely  embroid- 
ered with  gold  and  trimmed  with  buttons  o  mother-of-pearl  In  strik- 
ing contrast  to  his  blue  jacket  were  loose  white  linen  trunks  that  came  to 
hif  knees  and  set  off  his  elaborately  worked  stockings.  Around  h.s  neck 
was  a  wonderful  chain  of  yellow  Arabian  gold,  and  m  his  belt  a  dagger. 
Us  hilt  set  with  precious  stones.  His  fierce  eye  and  insolent  manner 
reminded  hTs  most  casual  comrades  that  he  feared  neither  devil  nor 
r^an"and  was  the  sort  of  a  leader  that  would  attract  the  very  devils  of 

"  ft*' hospitality  of  Governor  Fletcher's  home  was  thrown  open  to 
him  He  was  often  seen  beside  the  governor  in  the  latter's  coach,  hey 
eichanced  valuable  presents  of  jewelry,  and,  when  he  departed  with  a 
pr^vatiring  commission  and  resumed  his  piracy  m  the  Indian  Ocean, 
he  left  behind  him  a  warm  friend  in  Governor  Fletcher.  Later  when 
brought  to  trial  for  complicity  in  freebooting.  Fletcher  admitted  his 
friendship  w^th  Tew.  and  stated  that  Tew  had  promised  to  aba„don 
piracy  and  become  an  honest  privateer.     He  acknowledged  that  he 


( 


/ 


io\^^ 


"^^  ^ny^ro 


SOME   LEADING    MERCHANTS   OF   THE   COLONIAL  PERIOD. 


Ja  ^Z; 


1f^^ 


"^ 


24 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF  OLD   NEW   YORK 


I* irate  John 
Hoar,  the 

Merchants' 

Syndicate, 

and  the 

Red  Sea 

Traffif 


I 


Stephen 

De  Lanceys 

Venture 


"found  the  captain  agreeable  and  companionable,  possessed  of  good 
sense  and  a  great  memory."  He  had  invited  Tew  to  his  home  not 
alone  for  his  agreeable  companionship,  but  also  in  the  hope  of  reclaim- 
ing him  to  a  better  life,  and  the  only  serious  defect  he  had  observed 
in  his  moral  character  "was  his  vile  habit  of  swearing,  which,  how- 
ever, he  hoped  to  correct  by  serious  admonition  and  by  lending  him 
a  book  on  the  subject." 

Among  the  pirates  with  whom  New  York  merchants  had  an  even 
more  intimate  connection  was  John  Hoar,  an  Irishman,  who  had  been 
a  buccaneer  in  the  West  Indies.  He  openly  recruited  his  men  for  the 
Red  Sea  trade,  or  "on  the  account,"  to  use  another  euphemistic  phrase 
then  popular,  and  his  financial  backing  was  arranged  by  a  syndicate 
of  twenty-two  New  York  merchants.  He  sailed  in  1695  with  a  privateer- 
ing commission  supplied  by  Governor  Fletcher.  About  a  year  later 
the  same  syndicate  quietly  fitted  out  another  ship,  the  Fortune,  ostensi- 
bly a  slaver,  though  her  lading  was  described  as  "goods  suitable  for 
pirates."  She  made  straight  for  Madagascar,  where  she  met  Hoar  s 
ship  laden  with  plunder,  exchanged  cargoes  with  him,  and  returned 
to  New  Y^ork,  bringing  some  of  Hoar's  crew. 

As  this  profitable  arrangement  amounted  to  direct  piracy,  and  was 
a  little  too  risky  to  be  practised  generally,  the  more  conservative 
merchants  were  satisfied  with  the  modest  profits  of  the  Red  Sea  trade. 
This  trade  lent  a  picturesque  magnificence  to  the  city,  for  rare  Persian 
fabrics,  costlv  perfumes  and  spices,  Oriental  rugs,  poured  into  New 
York.  Arabian  gold  was  current  coin,  and  New  York  women  wore 
robes  embroidered  for  Eastern  queens.  Jewels  and  costly  ornaments 
of  Oriental  workmanship  in  gold,  silver,  ivory,  and  pearl  were  worn. 
The  taverns  along  the  water  front  were  full  of  wild-looking  sailors, 
bristling  with  knives  and  ready  for  any  desperate  enterprise,  while 
their  captains  were  profusely  entertained  by  the  merchants  and  the 
landed  gentry  that  they  enriched. 

A  typical  venture  in  the  Red  Sea  trade  was  that  of  bteplien  De  Lancey 
—a  man  of  wealth  and  unassailable  position— in  1698,  in  the  ship 
Nassau,  in  command  of  Captain  Giles  Shelley.  Rum  that  cost  but 
two  shillings  a  gallon  was  sold  for  £3  at  Madagascar.  Pipes  of 
Madeira  wine  worth  £19  brought  £300.  Gunpowder  was  sold  at  a 
similar  advance.  The  voyage  netted  the  owners  about  £30,000. 
In  addition  to  profits  from  trade,  the  Nassau  brought  twenty-nine 
pirates  as  passengers,  who  paid  £4,000  for  their  passage. 

Even  such  trips  were  not  without  their  dangers.  At  the  time  the 
Nassau  made  her  prosperous  voyage,  two  other  vessels— one  the 
Prophet  Daniel— were  captured  by  pirates,  and  a  third,  belonging  to 
Frederick  Philipse,  was  seized  by  an  East  India  Company's  frigate, 
presumably  for  taking  to  direct  piracy.  The  Prophet  Daniel  was  a 
sister  ship  of  the  Nassau:  she  too  cleared  for  Madagascar  ostensibly 
for  slaves.  Slave  dealing  was  then  a  very  respectable  business,  and 
young  John  Cruger,  afterwards  mayor  of  New  York  for  several  terms, 
and  first  president  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  acted  as  supercargo 


i 


i 


-t^ 


<^  CD  (B  n 

tOCTT 

*   ►*"  ^ 

»  (6  n  ^  ji, 


S.S§  X  > 
8  8  si 


OQMOtS  *^ 
•     3   P   •<     ^ 

t3<S  B  o    O 

|§8g  "^ 
Ba<5-  K 

?  g.5o  C 

B  -      0.(6 

«  p  p  p 

p'gss 

2-    -   -. 

"-•S  o 

B<  _  cr 
«  »  £.* 


'¥ 


26 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


^■11 


on  this  voyage.  His  log-book  describes  the  seizure  of  his  vessel  at 
Fort  Dolphin  on  the  African  coast  by  Abraham  Samuels,  the  pirate, 
with  whom  they  came  to  trade.  Samuels  turned  the  vessel  over  to 
Evan  Jones,  who  with  his  crew  came  from  Westchester,  N.Y. 
Suppresaiof,  Accused  of  abetting  piracy,  Governor  Fletcher  was  recalled,  and  Lord 
of  riraoff  Bellomont,  who  was  sent  out  to  take  his  place,  immediately  set  about 
suppressing  it.  About  this  time  Frederick  Philipse,  a  member  of 
the  council  and  the  richest  man  in  New  York,  expected  a  ship  from 
Madagascar,  and,  fearing  her  cargo  would  be  confiscated,  sent  his  son 
Adolphus  to  meet  her  in  a  vessel  bound  ostensibly  for  Virginia.  This 
vessel  cruised  about  outside  until  the  expected  ship  arrived,  and  relieved 
her  of  a  large  cargo  of  Oriental  goods,  with  which  she  sailed  to  the 
Delaware,  leaving  the  Madagascar  ship  with  nothing  but  negroes 
aboard.  The  scheme  failed,  however,  as  the  goods  were  seized  when 
on  their  way  to  Hamburg,  and  the  men  were  brought  to  trial. 

If  the  pirates  who  marketed  their  plunder  through  New  York  had 
refrained  from  touching  English  ships,  they  would  probably  have  been 
left  undisturbed,  but  they  boldly  attacked  the  vessels  of  the  East 
India  Company  and  English  ships  in  West  India  waters.  Then  in 
1695  New  York  pirates  took  one  of  the  sacred  ships  of  the  Great  Mogul, 
laden  with  presents  for  Mecca.  The  mogul  learned  that  the  corsairs 
were  English,  and  threatened  reprisals.  The  East  India  Company, 
fearing  the  mogul's  vengeance,  applied  to  the  king  for  a  frigate  to 
protect  their  interests  in  these  seas.  None  could  be  spared  on  account 
of  war  with  France,  and  this  suggested  to  Robert  Livingston  the  idea 
of  a  private  expedition  against  the  pirates.  So  he  proposed  the  plan 
to  Bellomont,  and  the  two  secured  the  support  of  the  king,  Ix>rd  Somers, 
and  the  Earl  of  Oxford,  who  shared  with  Bellomont  and  Livingston 
the  expense  of  equipping  a  vessel.  Profits  were  to  be  divided  among 
the  owners,  with  a  liberal  share  for  the  captain. 

Livingston  selected  Captain  William  Kidd,  a  man  of  some  wealth 

^unuu    and  position,  to  command  the  vessel,  as  he  was  an  efficient  comrnander 

Khhl   and  well  thought  of  in  New  York.     His  commission,  issued  under  the 

great  seal  of  England,  was  directed  "to  the  trusty  and  well  beloved 

Captain  Kidd,  commander  of  the  ship  Adventure,  galley."     For  some 

months  he  cruised  along  the  American  coast,  and  was  considered  useful 

in  protecting  shipping.      Then  he  sailed  for  the  coast  of   Africa,  and 

turned  pirate.     After  securing  a  fortune,  he  returned  to  New  \  ork  m 

1699,  and,  thinking  that  no  one  had  heard  of  his  piracy,  went  ashore 

on  Gardiner's  Island,  off  Long  Island,  and  buried  a  large  treasure.     He 

then  went  to  Boston,  was  arrested,  and  sent  to  England  for  trial.     A 

political  issue  was  made  of  his  case  because  of  the  noblemen  invo  ved 

in  it    and  he  was  executed  in  London  in  1701,  though  at  his  trial  he 

was  proved  guilty  of  the  death  of  only  one  man,  a  mutinous  seaman 

at  whom  he  had  thrown  a  bucket.  ,  ,  j  u 

Xnr  York-       Though  the  Red  Sea  trade  and  piracy  were  brought  to  an  end  by 

Privahrrs  ^ord   Bellomont,— but  not  without   much   friction   with  his   council, 

most  of  whom  were  merchants  involved  in  it,— privateering  flourished 


Captain 
Will  lain 


i 


SHIPS  AND  SHIPPING  OF  OLD   NEW   YORK  27 


* 


N 


during  every  war  throughout  the  eighteenth  century,  and  enormous 
treasure  was  brought  into  port  from  Spanish  treasure-ships  and  French 
vessels  kden  with  costly  Oriental  stuffs.  Nearly  every  merchant  of 
consequence  had  an  interest  in  not  only  one,  but  many  Pnvateer.ng 
ventures.  Many  merchants  at  the  gate  of  their  manor-houses  had 
figure-heads  of  vessels  captured  by  their  privateers.  , 

The  opportunity  given  by  the  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  be-    /  .».,„,,- 
ginning  in  1702.  wal  quickly  seized  upon  in  New  York   and  a  fleet  of    «<  « 
fiventy  sail  soon  cleared  the  port.     Among  the  ™o«t  famous  and    T.,.^^ 
daring  of   these  privateers  was  Captain  Regnier  Tongrelow,  of  the     ^._  ^^  j,_^^^. 
New  York  Galley.     The  newspapers  of  the  day  give  accounts  ot  many    ,.^„^ 
prizes  brought  into  New  York  by  this  great  fighter,  who  feared  no 
^ds,  and,  then  given  a  choice,  always  picked  for  his  adversary   the 
Weeest  ship  in  sight.     A  writer  in  the  News-Letter  learned      that 
cfptain  Tongrelow  cruises  off  the  Havana;    and  that  the  governor 
ther^f  sent  out  two  privateer  sloops  to  take  him:  but  that  Tongrelow 
had  taken  both."     The  Spanish  governor  apparently  persisted   how- 
ever,  for   a   month   later   the   News-Letter    reports       On    30th   last 
arrived  here  Captain  Tongrelow  who  was  chased  from  the  Havana 
by  a  ship,  a  brigantine  and  a  sloop  who  were  fitted  out  thence  to 

^ A^noth^r  bold  privateer  was  Captain  Tom  Penniston,  who  never  hesi- 
tated to  engage  two  ships  of  the  enemy  at  one  time.  Captain  Nat 
Burches  was  another  daring  fellow.  He  commanded  Tongrelow  s 
tender,  a  little  sloop  of  six  guns  and  twenty-seven  men.  The  News- 
Letter  of  August  5,  1706,  reports  his  meeting  with  a  Spamsh  ship  of  600 
tons,  24  guns,  250  men.  He  disabled  the  ship,  forced  her  to  run  ashore 
and  at  last  made  an  arrangement  with  the  Spaniards  by  which  he  took 
their  lading  of  brandies  and  wines,  but  left  the  rest  of  the  cargo  un- 
touched. So  Burches  came  home  with  fifty  pipes  of  canaiy  and  brandy, 
but  was  soon  off  again,  and  apparently  ended  his  days  by  falling  into  the 

hands  of  the  enemy.  .     ^      .  i         *u 

When  ashore,  the  privateersmen  frequented  the  taverns  along  the 

water  front,  particularly   a  long-roofed,  low-porched  resort  kept   by 

Captain  Benjamin  Kierstede.     They  were  wont  to  get  drunk  and  to 

fight  and  riot  about  the  streets  of  the  town,  to  the  indignation  and 

often  to  the  danger  of  the  staid  citizens.  •     i^.n  +v,^ 

Immediately  after  the  declaration  of  war  against  France,  in  1740,  the 

newspaper  Post  Boy  was  full  of  announcements  of  the  fatting  out  ot 

brigs  and  sloops  for  a  cruising  voyage  against  His  Majesty  s  enemies 

and  with  calls  for  "gentlemen  sailors  and  others     to  join  their  crews, 

and  before  the  end  of  the  war  twenty-nine  privateers  had  been  fatted 

out,  which  with  one  exception  were  small  sloops,  brigs  and  brigantines 

of  from  125  to  200  tons  with  batteries  of  from    12  to  16  httle  six- 

pounders  and  as  many  swivels,  and  a  crew  of  seldom  ov^r  100  men. 

Magnificent  fighting  was  done  during  the  war  that  broke  out  in  17i>6. 
130  privateers  were  commissioned  in  New  York,  and  in  the  farst  two 
years  of  the  war  upward  of  80  prizes  were  brought  into  port,  worth 


Sat 

jiiirrln  s 


fhr  War  ■>' 


/ 


28 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


v,-# 


Legitimate 

Tradt 

during  thi 

Eighteenth 

Centuri 


Ship 
build  in  a 
before  th 
Rerolutio 


perhaps  $5,000,000  of  to-day *s  money.  In  1758  Lieutenant-Governor 
De  Lancey,  writing  to  Secretary  Pitt,  said,  "The  Country  is  drained 
of  many  able-bodied  men  by  almost  a  madness  to  go  a  privateering. 

In  addition  to  prizes  taken  by  privateers,  many  were  brought  into 
New  York  by  the  king's  ships.  At  one  time  Captain  Peter  Warren, 
afterwards  Admiral  Warren,  who  married  Susannah  De  Lancey  and 
whose  country  seat  was  near  Christopher  Street  in  Old  Greenwich  Vil- 
lage, commanded  the  New  York  station,  and  from  the  transactions 
arising  from  the  condemnation  of  his  prizes  the  De  Lancey  family  and 
other  merchants  were  greatly  enriched. 

In  spite  of  all  interruptions.  New  York  did  not  neglect  ordinary 
trade,  though  it  grew  but  slowly.  From  1717  to  1720  imports  averaged 
£21,254  yearly,  and  exports  £52,239.  For  the  next  two  years  the 
figures  were  about  the  same.  Between  215  and  235  vessels  cleared 
yearly,  the  figures  for  Philadelphia  being  about  the  same.  By  1735 
the  increase  in  shipping  had  greatly  altered  the  appearance  of  the  city. 
Wharves  and  docks  had  been  built,  and  there  were  shipyards  from 
Whitehall  Street  to  near  the  site  of  Catherine  Street  Ferry.  Pearl 
Street  was  no  longer  the  river-bank,  and  Water  Street  had  been  raised 
above  the  water.  In  1747  ninety-nine  vessels  were  owned  in  New 
Y^ork,  with  a  tonnage  of  4,513  tons,  and  755  seamen  were  employed. 
Governor  Tryon's  report  to  the  English  government  states  that  in 
1762  New  York  had  477  vessels,  carrying  crews  amounting  to  3,552 
men,  and  that  in  1772  the  number  of  vessels  had  risen  to  709  while 
the  number  of  men  had  fallen  to  3,372,— fewer  men  being  needed 
to  man  vessels  in  times  of  peace  than  in  times  of  war.  Exports  were 
valued  at  £150,000,  and  imports  at  £100,000. 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the  trade  of  New  York  equalled,  if  it 
did  not  exceed,  that  of  Philadelphia  or  Boston.  Much  of  it  was  with 
the  Spanish  and  French  colonies,  and  was  forbidden  by  the  Navigation 
Acts,  though  connived  at  by  the  government.  Consequently,  when 
the  government  changed  its  policy  and  decided  to  enforce  these  laws, 
it  was  a  heavy  blow  to  the  city,  and  her  merchants  were  foremost  in 
protesting.  The  support  of  the  non-importation  agreements  entered 
into  by  all  the  colonies  was  firmer  in  New  York  than  in  any  of  the 

other  colonies.  . 

Though  seafaring  people  and  those  whose  business  depended  upon 
them  made  up  the  bulk  of  the  population  of  New  Y'ork,  there  was 
comparatively  Uttle  shipbuilding  done.  It  developed  slowly  in  a  small 
way.  Toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  Rip  van  Dam,  a 
prominent  merchant  and  citizen,  built  many  ships.  In  1693  John 
Marsh,  a  carpenter,  applied  to  Governor  Fletcher  for  aid  to  per- 
fect an  invention  to  increase  the  speed  of  ships.  In  1728  shipyards 
occupied  the  river  front  between  Beekman  Street  and  Catherine  Street, 
then  the  northern  limits  of  the  city,  and  in  1740  there  were  three  ship- 
yards in  the  neighborhood  of  Dover  Street,  and  this  was  called  the 
"shipyards  district.''  John  Dally,  John  Rivers,  and  Joseph  and  Daniel 
Latham  are  mentioned  as  shipbuilders,  but  the  principal  one  was  prob- 


l 


< 

O 

o 

H 

O 
H 
O 

td 
O 
W 


o   *^ 

«-  2 

O  M 
b^ 

i  o 
i. » 

g  w 

O 

H 

S 

w 

03 

O 
H 


S 


o 


30 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


(ill  i: 
Mcn-hani 

of  II 

Ci}loni( 

Periti 


Tl" 
LiriiKj.slo! 


Tin 

H'alhr 


ably  William  Walton,  who  is  known  to  have  built  several  vessels  for 
English  owners.  Though  in  1774  Governor  Tryon  reported  that  ships 
to  the  value  of  £30,000  sterling  were  that  year  built  in  New  York  for 
England,  the  right  kind  of  labor  was  lacking;  and  Massachusetts  could 
build  at  much  less  cost,  and  consequently  secured  the  bulk  of  the  busi- 

The  backward  condition  of  the  shipbuilding  industry  in  New  York 
as  compared  with  other  colonies  is  proved  by  the  report  of  the  English 
inspector-general  of  customs,  who  stated  that  in  1769  the  colonies 
built  and  launched  389  vessels— 113  square-rigged,  276  schooners  and 
sloops— with  an  aggregate  burden  of  20,000  tons.  Of  these  Massachu- 
setts provided  nearly  one-half.  Rhode  Island  came  next,  while  New 
York  had  only  5  square-rigged  vessels  and  14  sloops  and  schooners, 
measuring  in  all  955  tons.  Pennsylvania  owned  1,344  tons,  Virginia 
1,249  tons.  North  and  South  Carolina  1,396  tons,  Connecticut  1.542 
tons.     Georgia,  with  one  sloop  and  one  schooner,  alone  ranked  below 

New  York.  •     xt       v    i 

Throughout  the  eighteenth  century  there  were  in  New  York  many 
conspicuous  merchant  families,  who  ruled  the  city  and  were  prominent 
for  several  generations.  Among  the  well-known  names  was  John 
Cruger.  The  first  to  bear  the  name  was  alderman  from  the  Dock 
Ward  from  1712  to  1733,  and  mayor  from  1739  to  1744.  His  son 
John  was  alderman  of  the  Dock  Ward  from  1754  to  1756,  then  mayor, 
and  was  also  the  first  president  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce.  Ihe 
family  owned  many  ships  and  a  wharf  on  the  east  side  of  Whitehall 
Slip,  and  their  trade  was  largely  with  Bristol,  England,  and  the  West 
Indies.     In  the  fire  of  1776  they  lost  six  warehouses. 

The  Livingstons  were  also  distinguished  merchants.  Philip,  son  of 
Philip,  second  lord  of  the  manor  of  Livingston,  was  active  m  privateer- 
ing, but  made  his  fortune  in  the  general  importing  business.  He 
was  alderman  from  the  East  Ward  from  1754  to  1762,  member  of  the 
Assembly  from  1759  to  1769  and  Speaker  of  the  House  in  the  last  term, 
member  of  the  First  and  Second  Continental  Congresses  and  signer 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Many  other  members  of  this 
family  were  prominent  merchants.  ^ 

The  Waltons  were  among  the  real  merchant  princes  ol  the 
eighteenth  century,  their  wealth  being  cited  in  Parliament  as  evidence 
of  the  prosperity  of  the  colonists.  The  founder  of  the  family,  W  ilham 
Walton,  had  a  shipyard  on  the  East  River,  and  was  commonly  called 
"Boss"  Walton  because  of  his  active  superintendence.  He  sailed  his 
own  vessels  to  the  West  Indies  and  the  Spanish  Main.  The  origin 
of  his  fortune  was  a  privilege  granted  him  by  the  Spaniards  of  St.  Augus- 
tine and  the  West  Indies  to  supply  the  garrisons  with  provisions. 
He  kept  a  permanent  factor  on  the  West  Indian  coast,  and  his  nephew 
enjoyed  the  same  monopoly.  His  nephew  Williani  sailed  his  uncle  s 
vessels  to  Curagoa,  and  in  the  French  wars  ran  his  vessels  as  priva- 
teers He  was  a  member  of  the  Assembly  in  1751-1752  and  until 
1759,  joining  the  De  Lancev  party.     In  1758  he  became  a  member 


vj# 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF  OLD   NEW   YORK 


81 


Kew  Yoek 

1790. 
(Collection  of  Percy  R.  Pyne,  2d.) 

of  His  Majesty's  Council.     Many  other  members  of  his  family  were 
prominent  merchants  and  they  were  the  heaviest  underwriters  of  the 

The  Ludlows  were  another  great  merchant  family  in  the  general 
importing  business.    They  were  early  members  of  the  Chamber  of 
Commerce.     Alsop  was  also  a  prominent  name  in  New  York  commerce 
for  many  years.     John  and  Richard  were  wealthy  merchants.     John 
was  a  delegate  to  the  First  and  Second  Contmental  Congresses  and 
first  president  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  after  its  reorganization 
in  1784.     The  Bayard  family  were  sugar  refiners      the  mystery     ot 
which  they  introduced  to  New  York.     So  were  the  Van  Cortkndts. 
The  Roosevelts,  and  the  Cuylers.     The  Schuylers,  Verplancks,  Whites, 
Baches,  Murrays,  and  Franklins  were  shipping  merchants  and  mporters. 
The  Gouverneurs  traded  with  the  West  Indies  and  the  Spanish  Main. 
The  Schermerhorns  were  in  the  coasting  trade  and  in  ship-chandlery. 
Among  the  most  adventurous  merchants  was  Lawrence  Kortright. 
whose  armed  vessels  scoured  the  seas  during  the  war  in  1759-1761. 
The  largest  ship-owner  in  New  York  just  before  the  Revolution  was 
Robert  Murray,  a  "Friend."     He  owned  more  tons  of  shipping  than 
any  one  else  in  America,  and  was  celebrated  not  only  on  that  account, 
but  abo  because  he  was  one  of  the  five  New  Yorkers  rich  enough  to 


Ltid  loirs 
(Util  Others' 


\ 


32 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


A 


keep  a  coach.     This  he  called  " my  leather  conveniency  "  to  avoid  any 
appearance  of  ostentation.     His  business  was  chiefly  with  the   West 

Separation  from  England  cost  Americans  their  valuable  trade  with 

the  British  West  Indies,  and,  until  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 

in  1789  gave  Congress  some  basis  upon  which  to  negotiate  commercial 

treaties  with  foreign  countries,  the  carrying  trade  with   Europe  was 

closed  to  us  by  discriminating  duties.     Consequently,  American  enter- 

prise  looked  to  the  Orient,  and  directly  after  the  war  the  foundations 

were  laid  for  the  splendid  trade  that  brought  wealth  to  the  country  until 

the  American  sailing  vessel  was  driven  from  the  sea.  ,  a.  . 

Th.  Rh.        The  first  real  legislation  of  the  First  Congress  of  the  United  States 

oftZ    was  to  encourage  shipping,  and  between  1789  and   1795  the  merchant 

American    fleet  of  the  United  States  increased  from  201,562  tons  to  747,96o  tons. 

Merchant    The  Napoleonic  wars  caused  a  great  demand  for  American  products, 

Marhu    threw  the  carrying  trade  of  Europe  into  American  hands,  and  for  a  time 

left  the  United  States  no  real  competition  in  the  China  trade.     By 

1820,  in  spite  of  the  repressive  influence  of  the  Embargo  Act  and  the 

War  of  1812,  our  shipping  had  reached  1,280,167  tons,  and  half  of  this 

was  in  the  foreign  trade.  .       .      i 

Between  1820  and  1830  ninety  per  cent,  of  our  carrying  trade  was 
controlled  bv  American  vessels.  No  other  country  had  ever  made  such 
marvellouslv  rapid  progress:  our  ships  were  admired  in  every  port  in 
the  world. '  Great  Britain  alone  disputed  our  supremacy.  Between 
1847  and  1858  our  tonnage  employed  in  the  foreign  trade  more  than 
doubled,  reaching  2,300,000  tons  as  compared  with  943,000  tons  in 
1846.  By  1860  the  United  States  owned  a  greater  tonnage  than  the 
United  Kingdom,  and  nearly  as  much  as  the  whole  British  Empire,— 
2,496,000  tons  in  all.  During  the  great  days  of  the  American  mer- 
chant  marine  New  York   filled   an   important   place.  ^  In   every    sea 

often  the   answer  to  the   hail  of   passing  craft   was,  '*To  from 

New  York.*' 


Beginning 

oj  the 

China 

Trade 


At  the  close  of  the  Revolution  New  York  had  lost  about  half  her  popu- 
lation, and  her  commerce  and  shipping  were  completely  destroyed  even 
to  her  fishing  fleets.  But  within  six  months  of  the  time  the  city  was 
evacuated  by  the  British  the  Empress  o}  China  sailed  from  New  York  for 
Canton,  and  was  the  first  American  vessel  to  make  the  voyage  to  China, 
sailing  February  22,  1784.  She  had  a  displacement  of  360  tons,  was 
manned  by  a  crew  of  46,  and  was  the  first  American  vessel  to  be  copper- 
bottomed.  A  number  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  merchants  fitted 
her  out,  and  her  cargo  was  mostly  ginseng.  She  carried  with  her  sea 
letters  signed  by  the  President  and  Secretary  of  Congress,  and  reached 
Canton  Roads  August  23,  arriving  home  May  H,  1785.  The  voyage 
netted  $30,000,-25  per  cent,  on  the  investment.  This  was  considered 
small,  as  profits  of  100  per  cent,  were  often  made  by  ships  in  the  China 

trade 

Several  other  New  York  vessels  immediately  followed  the  Empress 
of  Chinas  lead.     In  the  season  of    1787   three  of  the  five  American 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


SS 


\ 
^ 


<^ 


vessels  at  Canton  were  from  New  York.     One  of  the  first  and  most 

famous  New  York  vessels  in  the  China  trade  was  the  Experiment  a 

little   sloop  of   80   tons,   hardly   more    seaworthy   than    the   Hudson 

River  sloop  of  to-day.     She  carried  a  crew  of  fifteen  men  and  boys, 

and  was  commanded  by  Stewart  Dean,  a  plucky  privateersman  in  the 

Revolution.     She  mounted  six  carriage  guns,  and  carried  plenty  ol 

muskets,  boarding-pikes,  and  cutlasses,  as  there  were  pirates    to  be 

reckoned  with.     The  Experiment  made  a  profitable  voyage,  taking  out 

ginseng  and  bringing  back  silk  and  tea.     Not  a  man  was  lost,  and  the  ^^ 

return  voyage  was  made  in  four  months  and  twelve  days.  __  ., 

New   York's    rapid    recovery    after   the   Revolution   was    amazing. I  New.  >^^ 
Within  five  years  the  population  had  reached  30,000  and  commerce  had    .a^^ 
returned  to  its  former  figure.     Work  was  begun  filling  m  the  East  Orouih 
River  to  afford   deep-water  wharfage  for  the  larger  ships  needed  for 

the  long  East  India  voyages.  j     *        *       „ 

The  merchants  of  New  York  were  quick  to  see  the  need  of  a  strong 
central  government,  and  through  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  reorgan- 
ized in  1784,  took  steps  to  secure  the  ratification  of  the  Constitution 
by  the  State,  thus  helping  to  pave  the  way  for  the  marvellous  groAvth 
in  the  American  merchant  marine  that  followed  the  fostering  shipping 

legislation  of  1789.  t^     -   „  t^u^ 

The  city  responded  to  improved  conditions  at  once.  During  the 
next  twelve  years  (1789-1801)  duties  on  foreign  goods  imported  into 
New  York  increased  from  less  than  $150,000  to  more  than  $500,000. 
Exports  increased  in  value  from  $2,500,000  to  almost  $20,000,000. 
Tonnage  of  vessels  in  the  foreign  trade  ran  up  from  18,000  tons  to 
146,000  tons,  and  in  the  coasting  trade  from  below  5,000  tons  to  above 
34,000  tons.  At  the  opening  of  this  period  Massachusetts  had  19o  401 
tons  of  shipping,  and  New  York  had  fourth  place  with  92,737  tons 
By  1801  New  York  had  reached  first  place  and  has  never  relinquished 
it:  In  1806  the  revenue  from  the  port  of  New  York  amounted  to  one- 
quarter  of  the  national  revenue.  u      .       r     .„/;..„ 

The  capitalists  of  old  New  York  were  all  ship-owners  and  merchants,  P^^oundin^^^^ 
so  shipping  operations  were  usually  financed  very  informally      At  the  'if  the  Hank 
Tontine  Coffee  House  or  at  Bradford's,  merchants  met  to  take  shares  ^^^^^^^^^^ 
in  one  another's  ventures,  but  as  the  business  of  New  York  became  ^^         ^ 
more  complex  with  the  city's  growth  it  began  to  require  the  service  and 
convenience  of  banks.     In  1799  there  was  but  one  bank  m  the  city 
and,  as  the  necessary  business  of  New  York  justified  the  establishing  of 
another  one,  the  Bank  of  the  Manhattan  Company  began  business  on 
September  1,  1799,  at  40  Wall  Street.     It  had  been  organized  April  2 
1799,   as  The   Manhattan  Company  to  supply  New  York  City  with 
pure  water.     Among  the  subscribers  to  the  two  million  dollars  capital 
stock  were  some  of  the  leading  mercha^jts  and  men  of  New  York, 
such  a/Daniel  Ludlow^'john  B.  Church,  William  Laight,  Pascal  N. 
Smithr  Samuel  Osgpod;  John  Steven<  John  B.  Coles,^  John  Brow^, 
De  Wittr  ClintoiVAaron  Btfrr,  Augustus  H.  Lawrence,  Fredrick  De 
Fey stef;  John  Aspinwall,^homas  LeRoy,vR.  R.  Livingston,  Robert  L. 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD    NEW   YORK 


35 


I 


> 


4' 


LAUNCH  OF  THE  STEAM  FRIGATE  "FULTON"  THE  FIRST  AT  NEW  YORK. 

OCTOBER    29,   1814. 
"She  was  150  feet  long  and  50  feet  wide.    Will  mount  28  long  32-pounder3  and  2  SO-pounders. 
(Columbiads  )    Drawn  by  J.  J.  Barralet  from  a  sketch  by  Morgan  taken  on  the  spot      B.  Tanner 
enS^er    Philadelphia.     PubUshed  March  27.  1815.  by  B.  Tanner.  No.  78  Sou^Sth  Street. 
(Collection  of  Percy  R.  Pyne,  2d.)  .  / 

Livingstonr  Schuyler  Livingston^illiam  Cutting,  J^esJVIorris,u^ 
Henry  Rutger,5Hlbert  Aspinwall,  Nicholas  Gouverneur,^ohn  Delafaeld,^ 
Nicholas  Lowland  others.  It  stood  behind  the  shipbuilders  and  ship- 
owners and  aided  those  who  were  developing  the  early  steamship 
business.  Among  its  depositors  have  been  such  representative  mer- 
chants as  John  W.  Low,  W.  H.  Barker,  G.  G.  Howland  Jacob  Walton, 
Archibald  Gracie,  John  C.  Green,  David  Griswold,  William  Rhine- 
lander,  Jacob  Rhinelander,  Gerard  Beekman,  Nathaniel  Cruger, 
C.  Griswold,  and  most  of  the  men  of  New  York  who  were  the  builders 
of  the  city's  commerce.  The  growth  of  the  bank  has  kept  pace  with 
the  commercial  needs  of  the  city. 

New  York's  fur  trade  had  always  been  extensive  and  prohtable. 
With  the  opening  of  the  China  trade  it  was  found  that  better  prices 
could  be  obtained  there  than  in  Europe,  and  from  1804  to  1830  one  of 
the  chief  articles  of  export  to  the  East  was  furs.  Many  New  \ork 
vessels  were  engaged  in  seal  hunting,  and  sea-otter  had  recently  been 
discovered  on  the  northwest  coast  of  America.  So  many  New  York 
vessels  stopped  there  to  collect  skins  on  the  way  to  Canton,  where  they 
exchanged  them  for  teas,  spices,  camphor,  sugar,  coffee,  porcelain, 
silk,  nankeen,  and  other  fabrics  valuable  in  proportion  to  bulk  and 
therefore  profitable  for  carriage.  The  surplus  was  reshipped  from 
New  York  to  Hamburg  and  other  Northern  European  ports.     Between 


If  or 


36 


SHIPS  AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


Merchant 

and  Ship- 

owners  of 

New  YorL 

during  thi 

First  Part 

of  ih, 

Nineteenth 

Cenitiri 


Tonnage 
and 
Primiteering 
in  IS  I 


1804  and  1812  much  ginseng  was  taken  to  China,  and  later  large  amounts 
of  opium,  and  from  1811  to  1831  it  was  profitable  to  take  sandalwood 
from  Pacific  islands  to  China,  in  one  year  1,333  tons  being  carried. 
American  manufactured  goods  later  made  up  the  bulk  of  the  cargoes 
to  China,  and  tea  and  cassia  were  the  principal  imports. 

Among  the  principal  ship-owners  of  the  day  was  John  Jacob  Astor. 
His  large  fleet  sailed  every  sea  and  brought  back  to  New  York  Oriental 
and  European  manufactured  goods.  One  of  his  most  famous  projects 
was  the  founding  of  a  colony  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia,  to  be  sup- 
ported by  the  fur  trade  with  the  Indians.  He  fitted  out  the  Tonquin 
and  established  a  trading  post,  which  was  captured  by  a  British  man-of- 
war  in  1812. 

Jacob  Barker  was  another  large  ship-owner.  At  the  time  of  the 
War  of  1812  he  owned  more  ships  than  any  one  else  in  America  except 
WiUiam  Gray,  of  Salem;  and  his  ships  went  to  many  countries,  carrying 
on  a  particularly  active  business  with  Russia.  For  five  years  he  had  a 
contract  to  supply  oil  to  the  United  States  light-house  service,  and  to 
secure  the  oil  sent  his  own  whalers  into  Southern  Pacific  waters.  When 
Congress  authorized  in  1813  a  loan  of  $16,000,000,  the  proposals  adver- 
tised failed.  So  Barker  went  to  work  circulating  a  subscription  list,  to 
which  the  New  York  merchants  rallied  and  the  loan  was  a  success. 

Archibald  Gracie  was  another  shipping  merchant  prominent  before 
the  War  of  1812.  Until  the  seizure  of  his  ships  by  Napoleon  under  the 
Berlin  and  Milan  decrees  forced  him  to  failure,  he  did  a  large  business. 
During  these  troubled  times  one  of  the  most  uniformly  successful 
merchants  was  Robert  Lenox,  who  escaped  the  disasters  that  ruined  so 
many  ship-owners.  One  of  the  oldest  shipping  firms  was  LeRoy, 
Bayard  &  Co.,  founded  in  1790.  In  1800  it  was  the  largest  commercial 
house  in  the  city.  During  the  war  it  sent  out  fast  vessels  to  Europe 
and  the  East  Indies,  which,  when  they  escaped  capture,  made  enormous 

profits. 

As  shipping  was  the  principal  support  of  the  city,  the  War  of  1812 
and  the  Embargo  Act  preceding  it  pressed  heavily  upon  New  York.  In 
1812  the  registered  tonnage  of  the  port  was  266,548  tons,  equal  to  that 
of  Boston  and  Philadelphia  together.  With  the  war  all  trade  came  to  a 
standstill,  but  the  declaration  of  war  authorized  privateering. 

Within  four  months  26  privateers  fitted  out  from  New  York,  with 
212  guns  and  more  than  2,200  men.  Many  of  these  were  wonderfully 
swift,  as  they  had  been  built  to  escape  search  and  impressment  by 
British  men-of-war.  These  fast,  beautiful  brigs  and  schooners,  well 
armed  and  heavily  manned,  were  seldom  captured,  and  brought  wealth 
to  their  owners.  One  New  Y^ork  privateer  of  17  guns  and  150  men, 
during  a  single  cruise,  was  chased  by  seventeen  armed  British  vessels, 
but  escaped,  bringing  into  port  goods  valued  at  $300,000  and  a  large 
amount  of  specie. 

The  General  Armstrong,  whose  fight  at  Fayal  is  the  most  thrilling 
in  our  naval  history,  was  owned  by  a  syndicate  of  New  York  merchants. 
After  five  lucky  privateering  cruises  this  small  brigantine  of  seven  guns 


f^^v 


Ed>^» 


^  CoU^^^ 


^''llia 


^  a  H' 


ebb 


^' 


•  A%  \»^    John  Jacob  Astor       j^f^. 


CO' 


x^"" 


WXJ* 


V5^^^ 


"Or. 


"^rieij 


FIRST  LEADERS  OF  COMMERCE.     THE   MEN  WHO  HELPED  TO   BUILD   THE 

AMERICAN    MARITIME   TRADE. 

(Collection  of  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce.) 


0\  ^jtix 


«: 


38 


SHIPS  AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


39 


The  A'r 

York  Park 
/  ;. 


VIEW   OF   NEW   YORK   QUARANTINE,  STATEN   ISLAND,  1833. 
Published  by  Parker  &  Clover,  180  Fulton  Str^t.  New  York.     Painted  and  engraved  by  W.  J. 
'  Bennett.     (Collection  of  Percy  R.  Pyne,  2d.) 

and  a  crew  of  ninety  men  was  caught  in  the  harbor  of  Fayal  by  three 
large  EngUsh  ships-of-war.  She  was  commanded  by  the  intrepid  Cap- 
tain Samuel  Reid.  After  three  attacks  the  enemy,  with  136  guns  and 
1,200  men,  succeeded  in  disabling  the  General  Armstrong,  and  Captain 
Reid  was  forced  to  sink  her  and  escape  to  the  shore  with  his  men. 
This  splendid  fight  delayed  the  English  squadron  ten  days  while  a  Brit- 
ish fleet,  assembling  in  the  West  Indies  for  an  attack  on  New  Orleans, 
waited  for  their  arrival,  and  this  gave  Andrew  Jackson  time  to  gather 
his  army  at  New  Orleans  and  made  it  possible  for  him  to  wm  his 
astonishing  victory.  •  i      i 

At  the  close  of  the  War  of  1812  the  need  of  a  closer  commercial  rela- 
tion with  the  Old  World  grew  so  pressing  that  some  of  the  more  enter- 
prising merchants  of  New  York  determined  to  establish  lines  of  swift 
sailing  packets  between  the  New  and  the  Old  World  Accordingly,  there 
came  into  existence  in  1816  the  famous  Black  Ball  Line,  the  first  Ameri- 
can packet  line  between  New  York  and  Liverpool.  It  was  founded  by 
Francis  and  Jeremiah  Thompson,  Isaac  Wright,  Benjamin  Marshall, 
and  other  New  Y'ork  capitalists,  among  whom  the  shrewd,  far-sighted 
Quaker  element  predominated.  At  first  the  packets  sailed  on  the 
first  of  every  month,  and  later,  as  the  competition  of  other  lines  arose, 

on  the  sixteenth  also.  •       ,     •        .     /?       i      j    j 

The  four  original  Black  Bailers  were  of  only  four  to  five  hundred 

tons,  but  they  made  the  old  merchantmen  appear  very  inadequate, 


<A 


and  commanded  the  best  cargoes.  The  Red  Star  Line,  established  in 
1821  and  owned  by  Byrnes,  Grimble  &  Co.,  the  Swallow  Tail  Line, 
owned  by  Fish,  Grinnell  &  Co.,  afterwards  Grinnell,  Minturn  &  Co., 
entered  the  field  soon  after  the  founding  of  the  Black  Ball  Line;  aiid 
by  1822  New  York  enjoyed  weekly  packet  service  to  Liverpool  and  a 
line  to  London.  Between  1822  and  1832  three  lines  were  established  to 
Havre.  Other  famous  lines  were  St.  George's,  E.  E.  Morgan's  London 
Line,  Spofford  &  Tileston's  Liverpool  Line,  and  E.  K.  Colhns's  Dramatic 
Line  with  vessels  named  the  Sheridan,  Garrick,  Siddons,  etc. 

During  the  first  nine  years  of  the  service  the  passage  from  Sandy 
Hook  to  Liverpool  averaged  twenty-three  days,  and  the  return  trip 
forty  days.  Many  of  the  later  packets  sometimes  made  the  passage 
from  New  Y^ork  to  Liverpool  in  sixteen  days,  and  few  there  were  who  did 
not  succeed  in  making  the  run  in  seventeen  days.  Six  of  these  line 
packets  made  records  of  fifteen  days  or  less  to  Liverpool,— the  Mon^ezwma, 
the  Independence,  the  Patrick  Henry,  the  Southampton,  the  St.  Andrew, 
and  the  Dreadnought.  Large  were  the  wagers  placed  upon  the  trans- 
atlantic races,  which  were  of  frequent  occurrence  between  the  packets. 
In  1837  the  Columbia,  597  tons,  of  the  Black  Ball  Line,  under  Captain 
De  Peyster,  and  the  Sheridan,  of  the  Dramatic  Line,  commanded  by 
Captain  Russell,  then  on  her  first  voyage,  raced  to  Liverpool  for 
stakes  of  $10,000.  Though  the  Sheridan  was  only  895  tons,  she  earned 
a  crew  of  forty  before  the  mast  with  regular  pay  of  $25  a  month  and 
the  promise  of  a  bonus  of  $50  each  if  the  ship  won.  The  ships  sailed 
together,  and  the  Columbia  won  in  sixteen  days,  the  Sheridan  arriving 

two  days  later. 

Agents,  builders,  and  captains,  all  were  part  owners  of  these  packets 
and  speedily  grew  rich.  The  agent  owned  perhaps  one-eighth  of  a  vessel ; 
the  builder,  in  order  to  secure  the  job  of  repairing,  which  averaged 
$500  on  the  round  trip,  possessed  another  eighth;  another  eighth  was 
owned  by  the  captain;  and  perhaps  a  sixteenth  was  owned  by  the  block- 
maker  and  the  sail-maker.  Competition  between  the  different  lines 
was  keen,  and  the  tonnage  kept  increasing,  especially  after  1842.  In 
1854  the  Amazon  and  Palestine,  1,800  tons  each,  the  largest  of  the 
Atlantic  sailing  packets  and  the  last  ships  of  the  Morgan  Line,  were 
launched  from  their  ways. 

These  packets  outstripped  all  foreign  competition  and  even  received 
the  attention  of  the  English  Parliament,  for  a  committee  of  the  House 
of  Commons  reported  that  American  ships  sailing  between  New  Y^ork 
and  London  had  the  preference  over  English  ships  as  to  both  freight 
and  insurance.  W  riting  from  New  York  in  1842,  Dickens  said,  "Below 
here  by  the  waterside,  where  the  bowsprits  of  ships  stretch  across  the 
footway  and  almost  thrust  themselves  into  the  windows,  lie  the  noble 
American  vessels  which  have  made  their  packet  service  the  finest  in 
the  world."  The  whole  country,  as  well  as  New  York,  took  the  greatest 
possible  pride  in  their  packets  and  their  captains.  No  matter  what 
the  weather  was,  ships  sailed  on  the  day  set,  leaving  the  piers  with 
sails  set,  and  cheered  by  the  multitudes  who  gathered  to  see  the  depart- 


I 


^w-f 


$8 


4;  CO 


^ 


» 


O  fl 


o  2 


a  !! 


« 


§=■9 
•J  a^ 

I— I  .o  o 


"O  « 


«  o 


r.K 


j3  gt- 

ccoQ 

go*— 
*i  o 

H^  >.. 

^  t  "" 


H 


O 


feiz^- 


« 


9     "^ 

00 

t'  ••  A 

r-  oorj 


n 


o  c;  ■ 

— •  c 
00  s* 


<4 


(B 


P 

I     . 


K-»J 


nja 


Sds. 


-*^ 


£1 
-3 


ta 


o  H 


© 


•^  P 

^ 


I 


^nj^ 


li 


4S 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


.1 


CUSTOM   HOUSE,  WALL   STREET,  NEW   YORK.  1831. 
Wall  Street,  from  near  the  corner  of  Broad  Street,  including  the  Custom  House  to  Trinity 
Church.     On  the  north,  at  the  Nassau  Street  comer,  is  the  First  Presbyterian  Church      A  veo^ 
rare  view      Drawn  by  C.  Burton.     Engraved  by  Hatch  &  Smilhe.     Pubhshed  by  G.  Melksham 
Bourne,  Broadway,  New  York.     (Collection  of  Percy  R.  Pyne,  2d.) 

ure.     Tugs  were  seldom  used  in  leaving  or  making  harbor  until  after 

1835,  and  long  afterwards  captains  took  pride  in  dispensing  with  their 

services  and  in  sailing  their  ships  right  up  to  their  berths. 

Famou         One  of  the  favorite  transatlantic  packets  was  the  Patrick  Henry, 

Packet     1,000  tons,  owned  by  Grinnell,  Minturn   &  Co.  and  commanded   by 

Captain  John  C.  Delano,  of  New  Bedford.     She  was  a  remarkably 

fine  sailer,  and  made  more  money  than  any  other  ship  belonging  to  her 

owners.      Another  famous  ship  was  the  Dreadnought,  in  command  of 

the  equally  famous  Captain  Samuel  Samuels.     On  her  first  voyage 

from  Liverpool  she  reached  Sandy  Hook  just  as  the  Cunard  steamer 

Canada,   which   left  Liverpool   a  day  ahead  of  her,  reached   Boston. 

In  1856  she  made  a  record  from  New  York  to  Liverpool  in  fourteen 

days,  eight  hours.     Three  years  later  she  broke  her  own  record  with 

a  passage  of  thirteen  days,  eight  hours.     In  1860  she  sailed  from  Sandy 

Hook  to  Queenstown,  2,760  miles,  in  nine  days,  seventeen  hours,— a 

record  never  equalled  before  or  since.     *'  She  was  on  the  rim  of  a  cyclone 

most  of  the  time,"  Captain  Samuels  explained.     Sailors  of  the  day  called 

her  "the  wild  boat  of  the  Atlantic,"  and  a  song  was  written  about  her 

that  became  a  famous  chanty ,—"  Bound  Away  in  the  Dreadnought.*' 

The  completion  of  the  Erie  Canal  boomed  the  business  of  the  packet 


KA 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


43 


«»•>  '^^v'*« 


JOHN   FITCH'S   STEAMBOAT. 

Fitch  made  the  trial  of  the  steamboat  with  a  screw  propeller  on  {^«  C;>^Yad^uccesrf uUy  run 
Tombs  now  stands,  in  New  York  City,  m  the  summer  of  179o  {? /JJJ^f  f.^^^^^^^ 
the  Perseverance  at  the  rate  of  seven  miles  an  hour  on  the  Delaware,  several  yearaueii^e 
Robert  FuTSJi  tried  out  his  boat  on  the  Seine  River.  Fitch's  boat  was  a  l^ng-boat  or  yawl. 
5,out  eiKS  feet  long  and  6ve  feet  beam,  with  square  stern  and  round  bows  with  seats  and 
waS  stieffi?  an  oar  at  the  bow  and  went  about  six  miles  an  hour.  .  Fitch.took  with  him  as 
n^senKers  Robert  Fulton  and  Robert  R.  Livingston,  and  was  aided  in  running  the  boat  by  a 
K^^ohn  Hutchings  all  of  whom  are  represented  in  the  above  picture.  The  State  of  New 
&  granted  Fitch  a'patent  fThTs  invention,  but  he  later  abandoned  the  boat  with  part  of  its 
machinerv!leaving  it  to  decay  on  the  shore  of  the  pond,  and  to  be  earned  away  in  pieces  by 

''^hI' Wbomin  East  Windsor,  Conn.,  and  was  a  farmer's  boy  He  was  apprentice  to  a  watch- 
maker ^  storekeeper  in  Trenton.  N.J.,  and  a  lieutenant  in  the  army  Being  taken  prisoner 
bl  the  IndiantKe  Northwest  territory,  he  became  acquainted  with  the  region  and  made  a 
^^oi^f  if      He  became  a  surveyor  in  Kentucky,  and  turned  to  civil  engineering,  going  to 

1846  by  John  Hutchings,  and  in  the  collection  of  Percy  R.  Pyne,  2d.) 

era,  and  then  modern  commercial  New  York  may  be  said  to  have  begun. 
Packet  lines  to  Boston  had  been  started  in  1818,  to  Charleston  in  1825, 
and  in  1832  E.  K.  Collins,  an  important  figure  in  American  shipping 
affairs,  established  lines  to  New  Orleans  and  Vera  Cruz. 

Before  the  dawn  of  the  nineteenth  century— about  1796— John 
Fitch  sailed  his  steamboat  on  the  pond  called  the  Collect,  which  cov- 
ered that  part  of  the  city  where  the  Tombs  now  is.  Umniportant 
as  the  event  then  seemed,  it  marked  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  the 
sailing  ship  and  the  transference  of  the  carrying  trade  to  steam.  In 
1807  Robert  Fulton  went  up  the  Hudson  in  the  Clermont  bo  that 
New  York,  whose  enterprise  created  the  swiftest  sailers  of  the  day, 
also  witnessed  the  perfection  of  the  invention  which  was  to  drive  the 
sailers  from  the  seas;  and  on  the  Hudson  the  steam  traffic  farst  devel- 
oped. A  steamboat  was,  indeed,  at  first  an  alarming  sight  to  the 
river's  rural  population,  and  the  astonishment  of  the  village  inhabit- 
ants is  expressed  by  one  of  them,  who  declared  he  had  seen  the  devil 
going  to  Albany  in  a  saw-mill."  Long  before  steam  had  ventured  to 
sea,  it  was  competing  with  sail  for  the  Hudson  River  traffic.  In  1810 
there  was  a  regular  line  of  steam  packets  to  Albany;  tri-weekly  m 
1813  A  line  from  New  York  to  New  Haven  and  New  London  was 
established  in  1818.  In  1819  the  Savannah,  a  sailing  ^^ssel  with  aux- 
iliary engine,  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  command  of  Captain  Moses 
Rogers  of  New  York,  where  she  had  been  built  by  Francis  Pickett. 


of 
St 


tir 


•n  nts 

It' 


44 


SHIPS  AND   SHIPPING   OF  OLD   NEW   YORK 


MODEL   OF   THE    STEAM   PACKET    "SAVANNAH." 

First  steam  vessel  to  cross  the  Atlantic.     She  sailed  from  Savannah.  Ga.,  in  1819. 

(Collection  of  Commercial  Museum,  Philadelphia.) 

Rogers  had  been  employed  by  Robert  Fulton  and  Stevens.  The 
Savannah,  sailing  from  Savannah,  Ga.,  made  the  passage  m  twenty- 
seven  days,  eighty  hours  of  which  she  ran  under  steam.  She  was  the 
first  vessel  to  cross  the  Atlantic  with  the  help  of  steam.  Off  the  coast 
of  Ireland,  she  was  chased  for  a  day  by  a  revenue  cruiser,  which  thought 
she  was  afire.  On  her  return  she  was  under  steam  ten  days  out  of 
thirty-three.  She  was  a  failure  because  of  the  large  space  needed  for 
her  machinery  and  fuel.  As  there  was  little  room  for  cargo,  her  engine 
was  eventually  taken  out.     By  1830  there  were  eighty-six  steamboats 

in  New  York  waters.  .       ,  .    .  .  r 

Cornelius  Vanderbilt  was  then  garnering  his  fortune,  running  a  Ime 
of  steamboats  from  New  Brunswick,  N.J.,  to  New  Y'ork,  and,  when  the 
monopolv  of  the  Hudson  and  the  Sound  granted  to  Fulton  and  Livingston 
came  to  an  end,  he  started  a  line  of  very  fine  boats  over  these  waters. 
Between  1829  and  1848  he  owned  and  operated  fifty  steamboats,  most  of 
which  he  built,  and  finally  established  a  line  of  transatlantic  packets 
superior  to  all  competitors. 


^M^' 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


45 


MODEL   OF   THE    CUNARD   STEAMSHIP    "BRITANNIA." 

One  of  the  first  steamships    to   cross   the   Atlantic.      (Collection  of  Commercial  Museum, 

Philadelphia.) 

Prior  to  the  Revolution  shipbuilding  had  not  been  an  important 
industry  in  New  York,  but  the  great  demand  for  vessels,  felt  soon  after 
1790,  forced  the  city  into  shipbuilding,  and  in  an  incredibly  short  time 
New  York  was  one  of  the  great  shipyards  of  the  world. 

Among  those  who  built  ships  before  1800  were  Thomas  Cheeseman  \ew  Y'ork 
and  his  son  Forman,  who  built  the  44-gun  frigate  President^  launched  ShipbuHderH 
at  Corlear's  Hook  in  1800, — by  far  the  largest  ship  built  in  New  York 
up  to  that  time.  Other  early  shipbuilders  with  yards  on  the  East  River 
below  Grand  Street  were  Thomas  Vail,  William  Vincent,  and  Samuel 
Ackerly.  The  Oliver  Ellsworth^  built  by  Vincent  &  Vail  in  1804,  made 
a  passage  from  New  York  to  Liverpool  in  fourteen  days, — a  remark- 
able record  for  that  time  and  not  often  exceeded  since. 

Henry  Eckford  opened  a  shipyard  in  1802  at  the  foot  of  Clinton 
Street.  Here  in  1803  he  launched  John  Jacob  Astor's  famous  Beaver, 
which  was  of  427  tons  and  carried  a  cargo  of  1,100  tons.  And  so  well 
built  was  she  that  after  forty  years'  service  her  live-oak  frame  was 
broken  up  to  furnish  timber  for  another  vessel.  Eckford  gained  fame 
by  building  frigates  during  the  War  of  1812,  and  two  of  his  appren- 
tices, Isaac  Webb  and  Stephen  Smith  (of  Smith  &  Dimon),  became 
leading  shipbuilders.  The  first  ship  of  Christian  Bergh  was  the  400- 
ton  North  American,  which  was  launched  in  1804  for  the  Atlantic  trade. 


46 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF  OLD   NEW   YORK 


Otiu 
I.eaditi 


THE   STEAMSHIP   "BRITISH   QUEEN"   OFF   THE   CITY   OF   NEW 

YORK    IN    183S. 
Thia  vessel  was  one  of  the  early  transatlantic   steamships  and   belonged    to   the   British   and 
American  Steam  Navigation  Company,  and  plied  between  New  York  and  Liverpool.     Its  length 
was  275  feet;  beam,  including  paddle-boxes,  64  feet;  tonnage,  1,862;  horse-power.  500.     (Collection 
of  J.  Clarence  Davies.) 

He  built  many  Atlantic  packets,  a  Greek  frigate,  and  the  famous  six- 
gun  schooner  Antarctic  for  Captain  Morell.  Isaac  Webb,  who  built 
many  of  the  Liverpool  packets  and  was  another  great  builder  of  this 
time,  was  born  in  Stamford,  Conn.,  in  1794.  His  father  was  a  ship- 
carpenter,  and  his  son,  William  H.  Webb,  was  perhaps  the  most  famous 
of  all  New  York  shipbuilders. 

Shipbuilding  had  become  by  1830  a  great  industr>%  employing  thou- 
sands of  men  and  engaging  the  keenest  business  men  of  the  city. 
Coming  along  the  East  River,  one  saw  many  fine  vessels  on  the  stocks 
and  great  piles  of  lumber, — white  oak,  hackmatack,  and  locust  for 
ribs,  yellow  pine  for  keelsons  and  ceiling  timbers,  white  pine  for  floors, 
live  oak  for  "aprons." 

Among  other  leading  shipbuilders  during  New  York's  great  ship- 
building era  was  Jacob  Westervelt,  who  learned  the  "art,  trade, 
mystery,"  of  his  profession  as  a  common  sailor  and  as  an  apprentice 
to  Christian  Bergh.  While  a  member  of  Bergh's  firm,  he  constructed 
most  of  the  Havre  and  London  packets  launched  before  1837.  He 
built  247  vessels  in  all,  and  received  from  the  Queen  of  Spain  the 
order  of  Isabel  la  Catolica  in  recognition  of  models  for  the  Spanish 

f  nffates 

Stephen  Smith  with  John  Dimon  founded  the  firm  of  Smith  & 
Dimon,  famous  all  over  the  world.  Prior  to  1843  they  had  built,  among 
other  vessels,  the  ship  Mary  Howland,  500  tons,  whose  unusual  size  at- 


^' 


1i 


I 


j'l  ^  *        V 


1 


-;j>^ae-«» 


'  111 


I 


f,-]'Mr 


SHIPS  AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK  49 


S 

i 


P4 

•s 

d 


a 


^ 


3 

0    -I 


^ 


o 

e 

o 


I 

a 

a 

2 


00 


3 

eS 

e« 
Q 


t 


-<  < 


lironn    4.V 
11.11 


tracted  crowds  to  her  launching,  and  the  packets  Ko5co6  and  Indepen- 
dence. The  latter,  built  in  1834,  was  140  feet  long,  1,734  tons  burden,  and 
sailed  regularly  for  a  number  of  years  on  March  6,  under  command  of 
Captain  Ezra  Nye,  carrying  the  President's  Message.  They  built  the 
Greek  frigate  Liberator  and  a  number  of  North  River  steamboats. 
Dimon  attended  to  the  repairs,  the  most  profitable  end  of  the  business, 
and  once  said,  "Smith  builds  the  ships  and  I  make  the  money,  ^rom 
their  yard  came  the  first  true  clippers,  the  Rainbow  and  the  bea  Witch. 

Another  famous  firm.  Brown  &  Bell,  consisted  of  Daniel  Brown, 
nephew  and  adopted  son  of  Noah  Brown  (of  Noah  &  Adam  Brown), 
and  Jacob  Bell,  who  built  many  Liverpool  packets,  among  them  the 
Liverpool  1,174  tons,  and  the  Queen  of  the  West,  1,168  tons.  Ihe 
firm  built  both  sail  and  steam  vessels.  Brown  received  a  ring  trom 
the  Empress  of  Russia  in  return  for  the  loan  of  some  ship  drawings. 

James  R.  &  George  Steers  made  a  great  reputation  by  budding 
the  cup  defender  America,  though  this  was  but  a  small  part  of  the  work 
done  by  them.  The  first  ship  railway  built  in  America  >yas  con- 
structed by  their  father  and  his  partner.  In  return  for  their  enter- 
prise the  legislature  granted  the  ship  railway  company  a  charter  for  a 
bank  to  last  "as  long  as  grass  grows  and  water  runs."  Thus  was 
founded  the  Dry  Dock  Bank,  now  the  Eleventh  Ward  Bank,— the  only 
other  bank  ever  receiving  such  a  charter  being  the  Bank  of  the  Man- 
hattan Company.  TTT-ll-  TT      If  jy  U 

The  most  widely  known  of  New  York's  shipbuilders  was  William  H.  ''/'«'''  ^• 
Webb,  who  learned  his  profession  as  a  common  apprentice  in  his  father's  ^^' ' 
yard.  He  launched  a  larger  aggregate  of  tonnage  than  any  other 
builder  and  had  great  success  with  warships.  He  budt  for  the  Italian 
navy,  and  constructed  the  wonderful  steam  ram  Dunderberg,  which  he 
sold  to  France.  He  also  built  the  first  steamer  to  enter  the  Golden 
Gate,  but  his  name  is  more  closely  associated  with  the  beautiful  fleet 
of  clipper  ships  built  in  his  vard  between  oth  and  7th  Streets. 

The  rise  of  the  shipbuildmg  industry  was  due  to  the  great  expansion  The  Clipper 
in  the  world's  commerce  which  followed  the  close  of  the  wars  at  the  ^^>P  t^ra 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  commerce  which  England 
and  America  had  long  been  cultivating  in  the  Far  East  waxed  mightily; 
and,  as  it  grew,  the  demand  for  stanch,  fast,  and  easily  managed  ships 
increased  until  American  shipyards,  which  were  easily  leading  the 
world,  could  not  keep  up  with  their  orders.  Some  yards  launched 
three  great  ships  at  a  time.  During  1832  the  registered  and  enrolled 
tonnage  of  New  York  was  greater  than  that  of  Liverpool  or  any  city  in 
the  world  except  London.  There  might  be  seen  500  vessels  at  anchor  m 
the  harbor  any  day  of  the  year.  When  China  in  1843  opened  four  more 
of  her  ports  to  commerce,  the  tea  trade  became  very  important.  Be- 
tween July,  1845,  and  July,  1846,  forty-one  vessels  arrived  in  New  York 
from  China,  and  probably  as  many  more  in  other  Atlantic  ports.  The 
value  of  the  tea  imported  into  New  York  from  1847  to  1853  was  more 
than  $8,000,000.  After  the  repeal  of  the  British  Navigation  Laws 
in  1849  gained  for  American  ships  a  share  of  the  British  tea  trade, 


SHIPS  AND   SHIPPING  OF  OLD   NEW  YORK 


51 


I 


k 


1^ 


,. 


•( 


Vc« 


Y 


SHIP   "ORIENT,"   EMPLOYED    IN   THE   CHINA   TRADE. 

Built  in  New  York  in  1849,  and  the  first  ship  to  enter  the  River  Min  when  it  was  opened  to 
commerce  in  1854.     (Collection  of  Nantucket  Public  Library.) 

American-built  ships  were  admitted  to  British  registry,  and  between 
1850  and  1857  all  the  largest,  finest,  and  swiftest  ships  owned  and  char- 
tered in  England  were  American-built.  In  the  tea  trade  swift  vessels 
had  an  important  advantage  in  the  delivery  of  a  cargo  which  would 
sell  at  high  prices.  As  the  trade  grew,  the  shipbuilders  of  New 
York  and  Boston  strove  to  produce  fast  ships,  and  so  the  famous 
American  clipper  ship  was  evolved.  Some  fast  ships  had  been  built 
which  approached  the  clipper  line  before  the  clipper  era,  but  the  first 
real  clipper  with  the  long  hollow  water  line  and  the  sharpening  of  the 
forward  body  and  of  the  stern  was  the  RainhoWy  built  by  Smith  & 
Dimon  in  1844  for  Rowland  &  Aspinwall,  a  New  York  firm  of  China 
merchants.  She  went  to  China  and  back  in  six  months  and  fourteen 
days,  including  two  weeks  in  port,  and  proved  so  profitable  that  her 
owners  immediately  ordered  another  clipper  from  the  same  firm.  In 
1848  the  Rainbow  was  lost  off  Valparaiso. 

The  new  vessel,  the  Sea  Witch,  with  the  low  free-board  and  raking 
masts  of  the  Baltimore  clipper,  was  very  beautiful.  She  was  painted 
black  with  a  gilt  stripe,  and  had  a  huge  Chinese  dragon  as  a  figure- 
head. Her  length  was  170  feet,  and  her  burden  890  tons.  Her  reputa- 
tion of  being  the  fastest  ship  on  the  sea  during  the  first  three  years  of 
her  existence  was  well  earned,  for  her  best  24-hour  run  was  358  miles, 
much  faster  than  that  of  any  steamship  of  the  period.     She  was  engaged 


V' 


d 
>, 


o 

hi 
A® 


d 
o 

"o 


a 


w 


-a 


S5 


O 

:i 

& 


H^ 


f 


^  < 


\ 


^. 


/ 


THE  PACKET  "INDEPENDENCE." 

Built  in  1834  by  Smith  &  Dimon.     Under  command  of  Captain  Ezra  Nye,  she  regularly  sailed  on 

March  6,  carrj-ing  the  President's  Message. 

(Courtesy  of  Mrs.  Neilson  Abeel.) 


^^^H 

' "  "~~^^^^^^^^H 

^^^^H 

■ 

^^^1 

^^K 

^^^^P 

1 

^^H 

P/l> 

^^^K 

^ 

1 

R 

IBJw^"''       .Sri.y^ 

^c 

i 

i 

•s 
i 
( 

■1 
i 

>  u^ .,  ^ 

iii'ji 

**'**8< 

IE 

K 

]^3c^^S^^  - ' 

^|^£5«*»-- 

d 

THE  "SAMUEL  RUSSELT./* 
(Collection  of  Nantucket  Public  Library.) 


54  SHIPS  AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


in  the  tea  trade  for  ten  years,  stopping  at  San  Francisco,  and  was  finally 
wrecked  off  the  coast  of  Cuba  while  bringing  coolies  /^^«"^  Anioy  to 
Havana.     The  Samnel  Russelh  940  tons,  was  built  in  1847  by  Brown 
&  Bell  for  A.  A.  Low  &  Brother  and  was  named  for  the  eminent  mer- 
chant, founder  of  the  house  of  Russell  &  Co^n  China   with  whom  the 
Low  brothers  began  their  business  career.      The  first  American  ship  to 
enter  the  British  tea  trade  after  the  repeal  of  the  British  Navigation 
Laws  was  the  Orieniah  which  was  built  in  1849  for  A.  A.  Low  &  Brother 
by  Jacob  Bell.     When  she  went  to  Hong-Kong  on  her  second  voyage 
in  1850,  she  was  at  once  chartered  for  London  through  Russell  &  Co. 
at  £6  per  ton  of  forty  cubic  feet,  while  British  vessels  were  waiting  for 
cargoes  at  £3  10^.  per  ton  of  fifty  cubic  feet.     She  sailed   August  28, 
beat  down  the  China  Sea  against  a  strong  southwest  monsoon    yet  ar- 
rived  off  the  Lizard  ninety-one  days  out,  and  was  moored  at  the  \>  est 
India  Docks  in  ninety-seven  days  from  Hong-Kong,— a  passage  never 
equalled  under  sail  before  and  rarely  surpassed  since,     bhe  delivered 
1,600  tons  of  tea,  earning  $48,000  for  freight  from  Hong-Kong.    Her  tirst 
cost,  ready  for  sea,  was  $70,000.     Her  arrival  caused  great  excitement 
and  apprehension  in  England,  and  the  Admiralty  got  permission  to  take 
off  her  lines  when  in  dry  dock.  .  .^  i  •  i     ij-   „ 

Californ.a  The  discovery  of  gold  in  Cahfornia  m  1848  gave  shipbuilding. 
Clippers  particularly  the  building  of  clippers,  a  great  boom,  for  much  depended 
upon  the  celerity  with  which  a  cargo  was  delivered  in  California. 
Prices  would  rise  or  fall  overnight,  and  at  first,  until  supplies  were 
abundant,  the  cost  of  commodities  soared.  Those  ships,  therefore,  that 
could  most  promptly  deliver  cargoes  earned  naturally  for  the  sh^^^ 
pers  the  greatest  profits.  Ships  which  cost  from  $70,000  to  $80,000, 
often  paid  for  themselves  on  their  first  voyage.  Nor  is  this  f^irprising 
when  one  learns  that  flour  at  first  sold  in  San  Francisco  for  $44  a 

In  the  year  1849  775  vessels  cleared  from  Atlantic  ports  for  San 
Francisco,  214  from  New  York.  91,405  passengers  arrived  in  San 
Francisco  that  year,  and  all  had  to  be  fed  and  clothed  by  the  East, 
as  they  produced  nothing  but  gold.  The  freight  rates  earned  seem 
incredible  to-day.  In  1850  the  Samuel  Russell  received  $1.50  per 
cubic  foot,— $60  per  ton.  She  could  carry  probably  1,200  tons,  amount- 
ing to  $72,000,  a  little  more  than  her  first  cost  when  ready  for  sea. 
As  more  ships  were  built,  rates  declined  to  $50  then  $40,  where  they  re- 
mained  for  long.  To-day  they  are,  by  way  of  Cape  Horn,  $7  to  $8  per 
ton,  charged,  however,  by  the  hundredweight.  ,     i    •      xt 

In  the  year  1850  60,000  tons  of  shipping  were  launched  in  New 
York  and  30,000  tons  more  were  still  under  construction  at  the  end 
of  the  year.  10,000  workmen  were  kept  busy.  The  total  tonnage 
built  in  the  United  States  for  that  year  was  306,034  tons.  ,        ,     , 

During  the  California  clipper  period,  1850  to  1860,  one  hundred 
and  sixty  clippers  were  built,  mostly  in  the  first  four  years,  m  or  near 
New  York  and  Boston.  In  1850  thirteen  California  clippers  were 
launched,  of  which  eight  were  built  or  owned  in  New  \ork. 


i 


i\ 


i 


{ 


i 


"  > 


tg^Utk 


56 


SHIPS  AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


f-    ^^ 


Thi 

Surpri.^ 

and  th 

CIiallciK/ 


Clipper  The  keen  rivalry  between  clippers  led  to  races  over  thousands  of 
Races  miles  of  seas;  and  upon  the  result  thousands  of  dollars  were  often 
wagered.  A  race  in  1850,  between  the  Houqua  and  the  Samuel  Russell, 
Memnoriy  and  Sea  Witch, — old  rivals  in  the  China  trade, — and  the  new 
clippers  Celestial,  Mandarin,  and  Race  Horse  (the  latter  of  Boston) 
was  arranged  round  Cape  Horn.  Stakes  were  large,  and  every  ship 
had  its  backers.  The  Samuel  Russell,  arriving  in  San  Francisco  one 
hundred  and  nine  days  from  New  York,  reduced  the  record  by  eleven 
days,  and  every  one  supposed  she  was  the  winner  until  the  Sea  Witch 
came  in  ninety-seven  days  from  Sandy  Hook,  cutting  the  record  by 
twelve  days  more.  This  was  especially  remarkable  in  that  it  was 
midwinter  in  the  Antarctic  when  she  rounded  Cape  Horn. 

The  Surprise,  built  in  1850  for  A.  A.  Low  &  Brother,  was  one  of 
the  most  profitable  and  in  every  way  successful  clippers  ever  built. 
When  she  was  towed  round  to  New  York  by  Boston's  historic  tugboat, 
the  R.  B.  Forbes,  she  was  pronounced  the  most  beautiful  ship  ever  seen 
in  port.  She  beat  W.  H.  Aspinwall's  Sea  Witch's  record  of  ninety- 
seven  days  to  San  Francisco  by  one  day.  She  soon  left  San  Francisco 
for  London  via  Canton,  and,  when  she  reached  Ix>ndon,  her  freight 
receipts  had  entirely  paid  her  cost  and  running  expenses  besides  netting 
her  owners  $50,000.  She  made  eleven  consecutive  passages  from 
China  to  New  York  in  eighty-nine  days  or  less,  six  from  Hong-Kong, 
five  from  Shanghai, — the  best,  eighty-one  days  from  Shanghai  in  1857. 
The  carrying  capacity  of  the  swift  clippers  proved  to  be  too  slight  to 
pay  well,  and  lightness  of  build  made  them  easily  strained,  so  the  later 
clippers  were  made  larger.  In  1851  there  were  thirty -one  California 
clippers  launched.  Among  these  was  the  Challenge,  2,006  tons,  built 
by  William  H.  Webb  for  N.  L.  &  G.  Griswold,  the  largest  ship  yet  built 
in  New  York.  Her  sail  plan  was  enormous:  she  carried  12,780  yards 
of  canvas,  and,  when  lying  at  the  foot  of  Pine  Street,  her  bowsprit 
at  high  tide  reached  over  the  roofs  of  the  stores.  She  was  painted 
black  with  a  gold  stripe,  and  was  one  of  the  most  expensive  wooden 
vessels  ever  built  in  America.  Her  captain  was  Robert  H.  Waterman, 
under  whom  she  made  some  fast  runs;  and,  when  in  London,  she  was 
so  much  admired  that  her  lines  were  taken  off  by  the  Admiralty. 

.  _ The  Comet,  1,209  tons,  was  also  built  by  Webb  in  1851.     She  was 

and  the  owned  by  Bucklin  &  Crane,  and  commanded  by  Captain  Gardner. 
Sxordji.sh  rpj^g  Comet  was  remarkable  for  speed,  sea-worthiness,  and  good  fortune. 
She  made  the  round  trip  to  San  Francisco  in  seven  months,  nine  days; 
the  return  trip  in  seventy-six  days, — the  shortest  on  record.  The 
third  of  the  famous  clippers  built  by  Webb  in  this  year  was  the  Sword- 
fish,  1,150  tons,  owned  by  Barclay  &  Livingston.  She  was  generally 
considered  Webb's  masterpiece.  On  her  first  passage  out  to  San 
Francisco  a  race  was  arranged  for  large  stakes  between  her  and  the 
Flying-fish,  a  Boston  record-breaker,  built  by  the  great  designer, 
Donald  McKay.  The  Sword-fish  won,  making  the  trip  in  ninety-two 
days,— the  second  best  record  ever  made,— her  rival  taking  ninety- 
eight  days. 


The  Comet 


SHIPS  AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


57 


>  u 


, '<llbl 


I 


"h^ 


\.  B. 

Palmer 


Another  clipper  built  in  1851  was  the  N.  B.  Palmier,  named  for 
the  celebrated  Captain  Palmer,  and  launched  at  Jacob  Westervelt  s 
yard.  In  China  she  was  known  as  the  "yacht"  on  account  of 
her  smart  appearance.  Her  captain,  Charles  Porter  Low,  a  rich  man 
and  younger  brother  to  the  owners,  with  his  wife,  made  his  home 
upon  her,  and  gave  elaborate  entertainments,  especially  m  China. 
After  a  few  voyages    to    California    she  kept  entirely    to    the    tea 

^"^  The  most  notable  of  all  the  California  clippers  was  the  Flying  C hud  The  Fhha 
built  bv  Donald  McKay  of  Boston,  but  owned  by  the  New  York  firm  of  ^  loiu. 
Grinnell,  Minturn  &  Co.  Her  length  over  all  was  225  feet,  tonnage 
1  783  tons,  and  she  was  commanded  by  Captain  Josiah  Cressy,  of 
Marblehead.  She  made  the  passage  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco 
in  eighty-nine  days,  a  passage  never  surpassed  and  only  twice  equalled,— 
once  by  herself,  and  once  by  the  Andrew  Jackson  in  1860.  In  this 
passage  she  made  her  famous  run  of  374  miles  while  steering  to  the 
northward  and  westward  under  topgallant  sails  after  rounding  Cape 
Horn.  This  was  the  fastest  day's  run  under  steam  or  sail  up  to  that 
time  exceeding  by  42  miles  the  best  run  then  made  by  an  Atlantic 
steamship.  This  triumph  caused  the  greatest  excitement  throughout 
the  country.     Her  owners  had  her  log  printed  in  gold  on  white  silk  tor 

distribution  among  their  friends.  i  i       r-  •       n    at-   ^  ri 

Another  fast  New  York  clipper,  also  owned  by  Grinnell,  Minturn  Uw 
&  Co.,  and  built  by  Donald  McKay  of  Boston,  was  the  Sovereign  of  ^^''''^^^^ 
the  Seas,  2,421  tons,  launched  June,  1852.  This  very  beautiful  and 
powerful  vessel,  commanded  by  Captain  Lauchlan  McKay,  brother  of 
Donald  McKay,  left  New  York  for  San  Francisco  in  August,  1852, 
with  freight  for  which  she  would  receive  $84,000,— flour  then  being 
worth  $44  a  barrel  in  San  Francisco.  Discharging  her  cargo,  she  went 
to  Honolulu  and  loaded  with  oil  for  New  York,  reaching  there  m 
eighty-two  days,— a  passage  never  equalled.  For  10,000  miles  she 
sailed  without  tacking  or  wearing,  and  in  ten  consecutive  days  made 
3,300  miles.  Later  she  sailed  from  New  Y^ork  to  Liverpool  in  thirteen 
days,  nineteen  hours,  the  passage  from  the  Grand  Banks  to  Liverpool 
taking  five  and  a  half  days. 

The  largest  of  all  the  clipper  ships  was  the  Great  Republic,  which  was  <  • ''^ «?  . 
built  by  Donald  McKay,  her  first  owner,  at  Boston,  and  later  bought  '^'/'"^^'^ 
by  A.  A.  Low  &  Brother,  of  New  York.  She  was  325  feet  long,  53  feet 
beam,  38  feet  deep,  of  4,555  tons  burden.  She  had,  when  launched,  four 
decks  and  four  masts,  and  carried  a  crew  of  100  men  and  30  boys. 
She  carried  15,653  yards  of  sail,  and  used  in  building  1,500,000  feet  of 
hard  pine,  986,000  feet  of  white  oak,  336  tons  of  iron  bolts,  and  56 
tons  of  copper.  She  was  burned  during  a  fire  at  New  York,  December 
26,  1853,  and  was  rebuilt  so  that  her  tonnage  was  reduced  to  3,357 
and  her  decks  to  three.  She  made  a  passage  to  San  Francisco  in 
ninety-two  days.  She  went  under  the  English  flag,  and  made  a  voyage 
from  St.  John  to  Liverpool  in  fourteen  days.  In  1872  she  sprang  a 
leak,  and  was  abandoned  at  sea. 


r 


1 


JdJ 


CLIPPER  SHIP  "DREADNOUGHT,"  OFF  TUSKAR  LIGHT. 
12H  days  from  New  York  on  her  celebrated  passage  into  dock  at  Liverpool  in  13  days 
11  hours,  December,  1854.  Built  at  Newburyport  in  1853  by  Currier  &  Townsend  for 
David  Ogden  «fe  Co.,  of  New  York.  Made  the  passage  from  Sandy  Hook  to  Queens- 
town  in  9  days  and  17  hours,  under  Captain  Samuel  Samuels.  Length,  200  feet;  ton- 
nage, 1,413.     (Collection  of  Boston  Marine  Society.) 


.\ 


11 


"GREAT  REPUBLIC." 
The  largest  of  all  clipper  ships,  built  by  Donald  McKay,  who  first  owned  her,  in 
1853.  Afterwards  bought  by  A.  A.  Low  &  Brother,  of  New  York.  325  feet  long,  53  feet 
beam,  38  feet  deep,  and  of  4,555  tons  burden.  December  26, 1853,  a  great  conflagration 
in  New  York  set  fire  to  her.  and  she  was  burned  to  the  water's  edge.  She  was  later 
rebuilt  and  made  the  record  time  from  New  York  to  the  equator  of  15  days,  IS  hours.  Cape 
Horn  in  48  days,  and  San  Francisco  in  92  days.     (Collection  of  Arthur  Williams,  Jr.) 


SHIPS   AND   SHIPPING   OF   OLD   NEW   YORK 


59 


A  list  of  those  interested  in  shipping  during  the  first  half  of  the 
century  would  include  the  name  of  almost  every  merchant  of  conse- 
quence in  New  York  at  the  time.  In  the  early  part  of  the  century  the 
city  experienced  what  has  been  called  the  New  England  invasion, 
when  there  came  from  New  England  a  surprising  number  of  those  who 
later  became  New  York's  leading  shipping  merchants.  Their  success 
was  due  largely  to  the  valuable  experience  they  gained  while  in  the 
employ  of  New  England  merchants  and  capitalists,  who  in  the  early 
days  owned  most  of  the  shipping  of  the  country. 

Among  the  New  Englanders  who  had  successful  careers  in  New  Y^ork 
was  Jonathan  Goodhue,  who  was  brought  up  in  the  counting-room  of 
Hon.  John  Norris,  one  of  the  most  wealthy  and  enterprising  of  Salem 
merchants.  For  him  Goodhue  served  as  supercargo  on  a  voyage 
to  the  Red  Sea;  and  later,  when  he  started  business  in  New  York,  he 
retained  Mr.  Norris's  patronage  and  enjoyed  a  large  part  of  the  business 
of  Joseph  Peabody  of  Salem  and  Hon.  William  Gray  of  Boston,  both 
eminent  ship-owners.  With  Pelatiah  Perit  he  formed  the  firm  of 
Goodhue  &  Co.,  and  for  many  years  did  a  very  large  commission  business. 
Many  clerks  of  the  firm  went  out  to  St.  Petersburg,  Calcutta,  Canton,  or 
London,  started  business,  and  opened  relations  with  Goodhue  &  Co. 
The  firm  for  many  years  was  agent  for  the  Black  Ball  Line  of  Liverpool 
packets. 

Moses  H.  Grinnell,  born  in  New  Bedford  in  1803,  was  a  typical 
New  Y^ork  shipping  merchant.  When  under  twenty  years  of  age,  he 
went  to  Rio  de  Janeiro  as  supercargo,  sold  his  goods  profitably,  took  a 
cargo  of  coffee  to  Trieste,  sold  it,  then  left  his  ship  for  a  business  trip 
through  Europe.  On  his  return  he  settled  in  New  York,  and  became 
a  partner  in  the  great  shipping  house,  Grinnell,  Minturn  &  Co., 
soon  known  all  over  the  world.  This  firm  probably  built  more  ships 
than  any  other  American  firm, — it  had  two  great  packet  lines,  one  to 
London,  one  to  Liverpool, — and  much  of  its  success  was  due  to  the 
enterprise  and  courage  of  Moses  H.  Grinnell. 

One  of  the  most  famous  China  houses  was  that  of  N.  L.  &  G. 
Griswold  (nicknamed  No  Loss  and  Great  Gain  Griswold).  The 
Griswolds  came  from  Old  Lyme,  Conn.,  in  1794,  when  just  of  age,  and 
entered  the  West  India  trade,  shipping  flour  and  importing  rum  and 
sugar.  They  entered  the  China  trade,  and  there  was  probably  not  a 
grocery  store  in  the  country  in  which  tea  packages  marked  "Ship 
Panama  N.  L.  &  G.  G."  were  not  a  staple  article.  The  firm  had  three 
vessels  in  turn  named  Panama.  Many  men  afterwards  famous  mer- 
chants went  to  Canton  as  supercargoes  for  this  firm,  among  whom 
were  John  N.  A.  Griswold  and  John  C.  Green  of  Russell  &  Co. 

In  those  days  the  duty  on  tea  was  enormous,  twice  its  cost  in  Canton; 
but  the  government  did  not  insist  on  the  payment  of  duties  for  nine, 
twelve,  or  eighteen  months,  giving  merchants  time  to  sell  their  cargo 
and  make  another  venture  with  the  proceeds  before  paying  the  duty. 
John  Jacob  Astor  had  several  vessels  operating  this  way,  so  that  for 
from  eighteen  to  twenty  years  he  had  what  w  as  virtually  an  interest- 


Shipping 
yierchanU 
of  the  Sail 
Era 


i 


Jonathan 
Goodhue 


Moses  II . 
Grinnell 


.V.  L.  «{- 

G.  Griswold 


60 


SHIPS  AND   SHIPPING   OF  OLD   NEW   YORK 


free  loan  from  the  government  of  $5,000,000.    He  was  prudent  and  lucky, 
and  so  large  a  government  loan  did  not  ruin  him,  as  it  did  many  others. 

One  of  the  most  prominent  tea  houses  was  Thomas  H.  Smith  &  Sons, 
who,  starting  out  with  a  few  thousands,  imported  teas  so  heavily  that, 
when  they  failed,  they  owed  the  government  $3,000,000,  not  a  cent 
of  which  was  ever  paid.  This  failure  upset  the  tea  business  for  five 
years,  and  involved  almost  every  one  so  engaged.  The  firm  had  an 
enormous  tea  store  on  South  Street  at  Dover  Street,  which  extended 
through  to  Water  Street  and  was  one  hundred  feet  wide.  It  was  one 
of  the  sights  of  the  city  when  built. 
Hoidand  tl       The  firm  of  G.  G.  &  S.  S.  Rowland,  afterwards  Rowland  &  Aspin- 

Anpinivall  wall,  did  an  enormous  shipping  business,  especially  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  though  they  were  also  interested  in  trade  with  the  East  and 
West  Indies,  England,  and  the  Mediterranean.  They  owned  several 
Liverpool  packets, — at  least  seventeen  or  eighteen  vessels  in  all.  They 
did  an  extensive  business  with  Venezuela,  and  to  the  Pacific  sent  car- 
goes valued  as  high  as  $250,000.  These  cargoes  consisted  of  all  kinds 
of  small  wares,  dry  goods,  ironware,  steel,  provisions,  gunpowder, 
muskets,  Chinese  shawls, — in  fact  the  stock  of  a  country  store. 

W.  R.  Aspinwall  left  the  active  management  of  the  affairs  of  Rowland 
&  Aspinwall  in  1850-1851  to  go  into  the  Pacific  Railroad  and  Steam- 
ship Company.  Re  founded  the  city  of  Aspinwall,  and  eventually 
gained  great  wealth  through  operations  in  California. 

A,  A.  Low  One  of  the  last  of  the  old-time  New  York  merchants  was  A.  A.  Low, 
<£•  Brother  son  of  Seth  Low  of  Gloucester,  Mass.  Re  started  out  as  clerk  for  a 
Salem  merchant  who  traded  with  South  America.  In  1833  he  went 
to  Canton  as  clerk  for  Russell  &  Co.,  the  largest  American  house  in 
China.  In  four  years  he  was  admitted  to  the  firm,  and  remained  with 
it  three  years.  Re  then  returned  to  New  York  and  began  his  own 
business,  which  became  the  great  house  of  A.  A.  Low  &  Brother.  Re 
immediately  started  on  a  large  scale,  built  many  vessels  and  added 
to  his  great  fleet  by  buying  others.  Re  was  uniformly  successful, 
and  never  lost  a  ship  until  the  Alabama  began  her  depredations. 
Then  two  were  burned.  In  1860,  when  trade  was  opened  with  Japan, 
Mr.  Low  was  one  of  the  first  to  enter  it.  The  firm  included  his  younger 
brother,  Josiah  B.,  and  his  brother-in-law,  Edward  R.  R.  Lyman,  and 
they  occupied  a  counting  house  on  Burling  Slip.  At  this  period  most 
of  the  leading  shippers  were  depositors  with  the  Bank  of  the  Manhattan 
Company. 

Conrlitsinn  The  year  1853  marked  the  height  not  alone  of  clipper  shipbuilding, 
but  also  the  high  tide  of  the  American  deep-sea  merchant  marine. 
Forty-eight  clippers  were  added  to  the  California  fleet  that  year,  and 
more  the  following  years.  Clippers  had  captivated  the  imagination 
of  the  public,  and  every  one  with  money  to  invest  wanted  to  put  it  into 
one.  For  a  while  the  discovery  of  gold  in  Australia  helped  to  keep 
this  great  fleet  busy.  R.  W.  Cameron  had  a  line  from  New  York  to 
Melbourne  which  employed  eight  or  ten  of  the  finest  ones,  and  a  number 
of  them  were  chartered  in  England  to  run  from  there  to  Australia. 


^^* 


SHIPS  AND   SHIPPING   OF  OLD   NEW   YORK 


61 


.1 


J 


W 


During  the  Crimean  War  they  were  used  to  transport  troops,  but,  when 
the  financial  depression  of  1857  came,  it  was  evident  that  shipbuilding 
had  been  overdone.  The  California  freight  rate  fell  to  $10  a  ton,  and 
American  vessels  lay  idle  for  months  in  Manila  Bay,  Rong-Kong, 
Foochow,  Shanghai,  and  Calcutta. 

Americans  made  the  mistake,  moreover,  of  continuing  to  build 
wooden  sailing  vessels  after  the  era  of  steam  and  iron  had  arrived. 
In  the  decade  between  1850  and  1860  the  proportion  of  ocean  freight 
carried  by  steam  had  risen  from  14  per  cent,  to  28  per  cent.  So  far  as 
we  then  knew,  we  had  no  great  deposits  of  iron  and  coal,  and  we  believed 
England  had  the  advantage.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  Civil  War,  we  should 
perhaps  have  adjusted  ourselves  to  changed  conditions;  but  the  Alabama 
and  other  Southern  cruisers  virtually  drove  our  flag  from  the  sea. 

Internal  progress,  too,  attracted  more  and  more  the  attention  of 
the  far-sighted,  shrewd,  capable  business  men  of  America.  Inter- 
communication was  made  easier  by  the  coming  of  the  railroad  and  the 
telegraph,  so  that  it  was  more  profitable  to  engage  in  manufacturing 
and  internal  distribution.  The  carrying  trade  fell  into  other  hands, 
particularly  England's,  and  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  our  oversea 
merchant  marine  had  practically  disappeared  from  the  seas.  Many 
of  the  old  merchants  had  entered  other  and  more  profitable  lines  of 
industry,  and  the  few  who  remained  in  the  shipping  industry  were 
content  to  use  foreign  bottoms. 

And  here  we  leave  the  story  of  the  ships  and  shipping  of  old  New 
York,  which  we  have  briefly  sketched.  We  have  seen  the  rise,  culmina- 
tion, and  decadence  of  the  city's  oversea  trade;  and  to-day  we  look 
toward  the  dawn  of  a  new  era  which  promises  much  for  the  re-establish- 
ment of  the  American  merchant  marine  and  for  the  securing  again 
of  our  share  of  the  foreign  trade  of  the  world. 


New  York  Harbor  about  1849. 


(Collection  of  Percy  R.  Pyne,  2d.) 


t 


I 


AUTHORITIES 

The  author  desires  to  acknowledge  his  indebtedness  to  the  follow- 
ing authorities  which  have  been  used  in  the  preparation  of  this 
brochure : — 

"American  Merchant  Ships  and  Sailors,"  W.  J.  Abbot. 

"Autobiography,"  Jacob  Barker. 

"A  History  of  American  Manufactures,    J.  L.  Bishop. 

"History  of  the  State  of  New  York,"  J.  R.  Brodhead. 

"One  Hundred  Years  of  American  Commerce,"  Chauncey  Depew. 

"Clipper  Ship  Era,"  Arthur  H.  Clark. 

"Jasper  Danckaerts'  Journal,"  edited  by  James  and  Jameson. 

"The  Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies  in  America,"  John  Fiske. 

"Autobiography,"  R.  B.  Forbes. 

"China  Trade,"  R.  B.  Forbes.  „  „   c.  ^ 

"New  York  City  and  Vicinity  during  the  War  of  1812-15.    R.  S  Guernsey. 

"American  Historic  Preservation  Society,  Appendix  B,    fc.  H.  UaU. 

"Narratives  of  New  Netherland,"  J.  F.  Jameson. 

"The  Dutch  Founding  of  New  York,"  T.  A.  Janvier. 

"InOldNew  York,"  T.  A.  Janvier.  ,„,,.»*     u  **      r- 

"Historic  Buildings  now  Standing  in  New  York,"  Bank  of  the  Manhattan  Company. 

"History  of  the  City  of  New  York,"  Mrs.  M.  J.  R.  Lamb. 

"History  of  Merchant  Shipping  and  Ancient  Commerce,     \\.  S  Lindsay. 

"A  Short  History  of  the  English  Colonies  in  America,    Henry  Cabot  Lodge. 

"The  China  Clippers,"  Basil  Lubbock. 

"The  American  Merchant  Marine,"  W.  L.  Marvm. 

"History  of  New  York  Ship  Yards,"  John  H.  Morrison. 

"History  of  American  Steam  Navigation,"  John  H.  Morrison. 

"Tribute  to  Memory  of  Moses  H.  Grinnell,"  New  \ork  Chamber  of  Commerce. 

"Tribute  to  Memory  of  Abiel  A.  Low,"  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce 

"Beginning  of  New  York's  Commerce,"  New  York  Commercial  Tercentenary  Com- 

mission.  .  /-v.^^  n     i 

"Documentary  History  of  New  York,"  Edmund  O  Callaghan. 

"New  York,"  T.  Roosevelt.  ,       „  ^,    , 

"The  Old  Merchants  of  New  York  City."  Walter  Barrett,  Clerk. 

"The  United  States  of  America,"  N.  S.  Shaler. 

"American  Merchant  Marine,"  John  R.  Spears. 

"In  Olde  New  York,"  C.  B.  Todd. 

"Story  of  New  York,"  C.  B.  Todd. 

"Historyof  New  York,"  Valentine.  ,  „  ,,  ,     ,. 

"Manual  of  Corporation  of  City  of  New  York     Valentine. 

"The  Memorial  History  of  the  City  of  New  York  from  its  First  Settlement  to  the 

Year  1892,"  J.  G.  Wilson. 
"New  York  Old  and  New."  R.R.Wilson. 

"Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,    Justin  Winsor  ^^  „   m    T  R 

And  various  magazine  articles  by  T.  A.  Janvier,  Henry  P.  Johnson.  Mrs.  M.  JJl. 

L^Xand  G.  W.  Sheldon,  in  the  Magazine  of  American  History,   Harpers 

Monthly,  and  Cosmopolitan. 


/■ 


f   -1 


i 


\ 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 


»i^' 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 

This  book  is  due  on  the  date  Indicated  below,  or  at  the 
expiration  of  a  definite  period  after  the  date  of  borrowing,  as 
provided  by  the  library  rules  or  by  special  arrangement  with 
the  Librarian  in  charge. 


DATE  BORROWED 

OATK  DUE 

DATE  BORROWED 

DATE  DUE 

Mav6^ 

.._      Qin^J 

'2  '57 

Vwl  ■ 

i 

■ 

1 

1 

C28(a.82)100M 

0044247834 


FEB  1  ^  P*^^> 


-ti* 


II 


/ 


d 


11 


I' 


i 


AUG  1-  1928 


h-  f 


■ 

\  1 

'     1 

J 

END  OF 
TITLE 


